We at the Teilhard de Chardin Project are gratified that so many people from around the globe are joining the community of Teilhard devotees found at this website, and sharing their stories with us. With this post we start a new periodic series, sharing individual journeys that have led to their continuing interest in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Kicking off the series, from Canada, is Daniel Driscoll.
We would like to hear your story, too. Write frankfrost@teilhardproject.com.
At age of 84 Iâm not up to âperennial bloggingâ.  My hope would be that the sharing of some personal anecdotal data and random comment might be supportive of the Teilhard Project context. Since Teilhard himself often hinted that the âphenomenonâ, in final analysis, gets down to âthe personalâ—I feel that at the outset I should in some fashion âintroduce myselfâ.
When a friend forwarded to me the URL for Teilhard Project I was almost in âDoubting Thomasâ space. Can it be that someone is coming forward with actual âdoingâ, in a context that I had been thinking and talking about for the last two or three decades—âToo good to be trueâ, as my dear mother used to say.
In year 1962 I was an ordained priest (as of 1955) with a religious order which, by virtue of historical contingencies affecting Canada, specialized in missionary endeavors with aboriginal peoples, and the work of Secondary School and University Education. As a baccalaureate major in English Literature I was deployed, upon seminary completion, to the work of classroom teaching.
In respect for my âword quotaâ I will not get into detailed analysis here, except to suggest that our priests, brothers and sisters of the post WW II era, charged with arduous physical, mental and psychological workloads relating to the education of Catholic Youth, oftentimes suffered varying degrees  of âfatigue syndromeâ. After twelve years of classroom teaching, plus supervision of âboarding studentsâ in their study halls & dormitory sleep-time; the âyouth workâ; planning and chaperoning âsock-hopsâ, where Elvis was an energizer for everyone except me—I was getting to the point of being âa burnt out caseâ.
Iâm already well âover-quotaâ. Suffice it to say, that one afternoon in 1962 I was browsing in a âCatholic bookstoreâ and somewhat by accident fingered a volume entitled The Phenomenon of Man, by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. That book, and many others read with avid attention consequent upon that first impulse, âchanged my lifeâ, and kept me âin the Faithâ, even if I had eventually to relinquish priestly caste. For some time I took a âbreatherâ, but then was alerted to Ursla Kingâs âSpirit of Fireâ, and the Georgetown U. Press Correspondence with Lucile Swan. In my opinion these latter two are âmust readsâ for all who engage in the âRole of Women in the Churchâ dialogue.
Itâs quite a long story, since that first day in 1962, but I now feel that âthe world has unfolded as it shouldâ. I eventually found myself living (for 25 years) in India, within a few miles of the tomb of Francis Xavier. I spent quite a lot of time in Indian Ashrams, including the renowned Sri Aurobindo Ashram in âPondicherryâ, where I had lengthy teatime converse with a man contemplating a book âabout Teilhard de Chardin & Sri Aurobindoâ. It is only as of this past year that I thought of checking back to see if that erudite person actually completed and published his book. He did; and I have it now on my shelf—THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE FUTURE: A SEARCH APROPOS OF R.C. ZAEHNERâS STUDY IN SRI AUROBINDO AND TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, by Dr. K.D. Sethna. I can write about what Iâm able to conjecture from the reading of it—but, âenough alreadyâ . . .until next time. . .
— Daniel Driscoll
