Collect The Divine Milieu Originated By Pierre Teilhard De Chardin Issued As Textbook

speaks to the revision of Teilhard that his thought seems hardly revolutionary for those who read John Paul, Benedict, and Francis, This book is truly close to my heart, It bridges the gap between the best wisdom of mysticism regarding the personal spirit to apply these concepts to our collective spirit, So often mysticism in an introverted discipline, focusing on the interior life, The Divine Milieu is a beautiful vision of what Christian Mysticism could look like on the level of a church, a community, and a civilization,

I wish more pastors and church leaders read this book! Wonderful, wonderful My teacher recommended this to me in order to complete an essay for his class.


I really liked it, although I will admit it was not an easy read, I got the basics, but some lines I had to read a few times,

It was an interesting read and I'm glad I gave it a chance,

My religious readings are increasing, and I'm sure God approves : One of the most important books in my life I was first introduced to the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin while I was living on the streets of Austin Texas, homeless, by another homeless individual by the name of Charlie.
Charlie was an intellectual and obviously had some of the same interest as me, primarily the world, the nature of reality, Society amp culture, and surviving in the midst of what was seemingly an alien and hostile environment.
We would see Charlie at least once a month at a local Presbyterian Church which offered breakfast, a place to rest and fellowship, and much needed resources.
In the span of time we began sharing the same table with Charlie and often found ourselves in conversation, During one of these conversations Charlie showed me a book he was reading it was entitled the Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,

Our regular spot to hang out was the library, you could find many of the homeless here, In many ways you could say the library became our home away from home and there really wasn't a much better place to be, We would either find ourselves spending time on the computers or on another floor devouring some books, It was here that I found a copy of the phenomenon of man and began reading, During my time I was only able to finish half of the book and will find it and continue will begin again from the beginning, as I was intrigued but many of de Chardins ideas.
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At my first reading of de Chardin I did not realize who he was or what he was but his ideas were definitely interesting at the least and they still intrigue me enough to finish the book.
It is only recently but I have come to know more about de Chardin, I am a bit surprised that he could be both a scientist and a Catholic priest and still hold to what he expresses in his writing, There is obviously some things I still need to learn concerning a man's ability and desire to try and retain a loyalty to an old order which is so contradictory to what the evidence is.
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Notwithstanding what de Chardin expresses was well worth considering, giving requisite thought and possibly allowing greater influence, as there are things some can see and comprehend which others because of our predispositions would rather not consider.
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Where I was considerably impressed with the Phenomenon of Man I have found this volume "The Divine Milieu" far less interesting and engaging, Of course if one is already predisposed to believe in God as traditionally understood by the Church much may be gleaned, And there's a certain mystical bent, which is purely Pierre Teilhard de Chardins de Chardin, but it seems the primary purpose is to substantiate own religious faith in relation to Catholic tradition.
IE if one is already predisposed to accept the existence of God as defined by the church you may enjoy this, But I personally found it to be a step back from his other work, . .

As a matter of psychological health CG Jung people have a tendency to adopt and attach ourselves to various Myths, each filling out the need of our conscious minds to complete and make sense of the world we inhabit.
We need to understand what a myth is, sAmericans we live under the illusion of certain myths, First there is the myth of the socalled American dream, We cling to this myth because for many of us it seems to hold true unfortunately we tend to neglect the ones for whom it does not work.
Then there is the myth of Manifest Destiny, This myth declares that from the founding of this nation we were “a city set on a hill” and it was our right to extend our borders across the continent “from sea to shining sea” regardless of prior claims by others inhabiting the land we desired to possess.
This idea of manifest destiny was of a biblical nature and we still adhere to it under the guise of spreading democracy, But it is a collective myth, It is not real except that it is an ideal that most of us Americans have been sold and bought into that is something which we claim as “divine right”.
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De Chardins presentation in this book is little more than an assumed support of the Catholic myth shrouded in an air of mysticism, Aboutyears ago I was drawn to the writing of a professor of apologetics at Westminster theological seminary, Cornelius Van Til, One of his primary writings was a book entitled “Defense of the Faith”, I am not here to criticize Van Til, As I found it at the time I would consider it a work of genius, albeit a Reformed religious genius, But you cannot deny the man was brilliant, If I were to retitle this book I would call it “Defense of the Myth”, Though I respect de Chardin for his intelligence and mind I cannot help but consider this work more a defense of his Catholicism then of real academic inquiry We all do what we need to, too secure ourselves.
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"What is most divine in God is that, in an absolute sense, we are nothing apart from him, "

"No one lifts his little finger to do the smallest task unless moved, however obscurely, by the conviction that he is contributing infinitesimally as least indirectly to the building of something definitive that is to say, to your work, my God.
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"At the heart of our universe, each soul exists for God, in the Lord, But in all reality, even material reality, around each one of us, exists for our souls, Hence, all sensible reality, around each one of us, exists, through our souls, for God in our Lord, "

"Any increase I can bring upon myself or upon things is translated into some increase in my power to love and some progress in Christ's blessed hold upon the universe.
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"God, in all that is most living an incarnate in him, is not far away from us, altogether apart from the world we see, touch, hear, smell and taste about us.
Rather, he awaits us every instant in our action, in the work of the moment, There is a sense in which he is at the tip of my pen, my spade, my brush, my needle of my heart and my thought, "

"Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see, On the contrary, everything is sacred for the men who can distinguish that portion of chosen being which is subject to Christ's drawing power in the process of consummation.
Try, with God's help, to perceive the connection even physical and natural which binds your labour with the building of the kingdom of heaven try to realize that heaven itself smiles upon you and, through your works, draws you to itself then, as you leave church for the noisy streets, you will remain with only one feeling, that of continuing to immerse yourself in God.
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"Never, at any time, 'whether eating or drinking', consent to do anything without first of all realizing its significance and constructive value in Christo Jesu, and pursuing it with all your might.
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"O God, whose call precedes the very first of our movements, grant me the desire to desire being that, by means of that divine thirst which is your gift, the access to the great waters may open wide within me.
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"Teach me to treat my death as an act of communion, "

"Your essential duty and desire is to be united with God, But in order to be united, you must first of all be be yourself as completely as possible, "

"By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us, "

"Let us leave the surface, and, without leaving the world, plunge into God, There, and from there, in him and through him, we shall hold all things and have command of all things, "

"The human layer of the earth is wholly and continually under the organizing influx of the incarnate Christ, "

"The Eucharist must invade my life, My life must become, as a result of the sacrament, an unlimited and endless contact with you that life which seemed, a few moments ago, like baptism with you in the waters of the world, now reveals itself to me as communion with you through the world.
It is the sacrament of life, The sacrament of my life of my life received, of my life lived, of my life surrendered, . . "

"The kingdom of God is within us, When Christ appears in the clouds he will simply be manifesting a metamorphosis that has been slowly accomplished under

his influence in the heart of the mass of humankind.
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"God tends, by the logic of his creative effort, to make himself sought and perceived by us, But in the end the initiative, the awakening, always comes from him, "

"In a real sense only one man will be saved: Christ, the head and living summary of humanity, Each one of the elect is called to see God face to face, But his act of vision will be vitally inseparable from the elevating and illuminating action of Christ, In heaven we ourselves shall contemplate God, but, as it were, through the eyes of Christ, "

"Christian charity, which is preached so fervently by the Gospels, is nothing else than the more of less conscious cohesion of souls engendered by their communal convergence in Christo Jesu.
It is impossible to love Christ without loving others, And it is impossible to love others without moving nearer to Christ, "

"The man with a passionate sense of the diving milieu cannot bear to find things about him obscure, tepid and empty which should be full and vibrant with God.
He is paralysed by the thought of the numberless spirits which are linked to his in the unity of the same world, but are not yet fully kindled by the flame of the divine presence.
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"I confess, my God, that I have long been, and even now am, recalcitrant to the love of my neighbor, Grant that I may see you, even and above all, in the souls of my brothers, at their most personal, and most true, and most distant, "

"Humanity was sleeping it is still sleeping imprisoned in the narrow joys of its little closed loves, A tremendous spiritual power is slumbering in the depths of our multitude, which will manifest itself only when we have learnt to break down the barriers of our egoisms and, by a fundamental recasting of our outlook, raise ourselves up to the habitual and practical vision of universal realities.
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"The history of the kingdom of God is, directly, one of a reunion, The total divine milieu is formed by the incorporation of every elected spirit in Jesus Christ, ".