St. Teresa of Ávila wrote this prayer near the end of her life, around 1577, as a bookmark in her breviary. Pray it when anxiety crowds in and the day’s demands make God feel distant.
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 speaking to herself as much as to us. The prayer moves from what to reject (disturbance, fear) to what remains when everything else passes: God’s constancy. The word “suffices” is the hinge. Not “God is enough if you try hard enough to feel it,” but “God alone is enough, period.”
Teresa wrote this after decades of founding convents, navigating Inquisition suspicion, and battling chronic illness. She knew what it meant to be disturbed and affrighted. Her counsel is not theoretical.
Pray it slowly when you wake at 3 a.m. with a racing mind. Pray it before opening email. Pray one line at a time, letting each settle before moving to the next. The rhythm is a kind of reset: the world is passing, God is not, patience wins, God suffices.
Return to it before sleep tonight.
