When the day’s demands pile up and your heart races, this short prayer from St. Teresa of Ávila cuts through the noise. Written around 1577 near the end of her life, it distills decades of contemplative wisdom into seven lines. Pray it when you need to remember what lasts.
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 is addressing herself, not lecturing the world. The “thee” is her own restless heart. She repeats the word “nothing” four times in the opening lines because she knows how our minds catastrophize: the email that feels like the end of the world, the conversation that won’t stop replaying, the future that looms dark. Against all that, she places one fact: God is changeless.
“Patience gains all things” is not about gritting your teeth through misery. Teresa spent thirty years reforming the Carmelite order while battling illness, opposition from Church authorities, and her own self-doubt. Patience, for her, meant trusting that God’s timing is not arbitrary. The prayer’s final line, “God alone suffices,” became her personal motto and was found in her breviary after her death.
Pray it when you open your phone and feel the pull of a hundred urgencies. Pray it before a hard conversation. Pray it at night when your mind won’t quiet. Let the rhythm slow your breathing: nothing disturbs, nothing affrights, all things pass, God remains.
Carry it through this morning.
