When your mind races and the day feels out of control, this short prayer from St. Teresa of Ávila cuts through the noise. Written around 1577, near the end of her life reforming the Carmelite order, it distills decades of struggle into seven lines of crystalline trust.
Let nothing disturb thee; let nothing affright thee; all things are passing; God only is changeless. Patience gains all things. Who has God, wants for nothing. God alone suffices.
St. Teresa of Ávila, c. 1577
How this prayer works
Teresa names two enemies—disturbance and fear—and confronts them with the same truth: everything that troubles you is temporary. God is not. The prayer’s genius is in its rhythm: short declarations that slow your breathing, each line building to the final claim that God is enough. She wrote this after founding seventeen reformed convents through Spain, enduring Church opposition, the Inquisition’s scrutiny, and chronic illness.
The line “patience gains all things” echoes Luke 21:19, where Christ tells his disciples that perseverance will secure their lives. Teresa isn’t counseling passivity—she was one of the Church’s most tireless reformers—but the active waiting that refuses to panic when outcomes are delayed. This is a prayer for Tuesday afternoon when the crisis hasn’t resolved and won’t resolve today.
Pray it when you check your phone for the tenth time expecting news that hasn’t come. Pray it before opening your inbox. Pray it when someone else’s emergency becomes your disturbance. The prayer doesn’t erase the trouble; it relocates your stability from circumstance to God’s unchanging presence.
Carry it through this afternoon.
