Hymn to Matter - Teilhard de Chardin

[Larry Robinson]

Hymn to Matter

Blessed be you harsh matter, barren rock; you who yield only 
to violence, you who force us to work if we would eat. Blessed
be you, perilous matter, violent sea, untamable passion: you who 
unless we fetter you, will devour us.  Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible 
march, reality ever new born; you who by constantly 
shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further in our 
pursuit of the truth.  Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable 
time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations;
you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards of 
measurement reveal to us the dimensions of God.

	- Teilhard de Chardin
	(Translation by Bernard Wall)