When the day feels unstable and your mind won’t settle, pray the words St. Teresa of Ávila wrote near the end of her life. This is a prayer for anchoring yourself in God when everything else shifts.
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
The prayer asks for nothing. It states facts: things pass, God doesn’t, patience wins. Teresa wrote these lines in her breviary when she was sixty-two, after decades of founding convents, navigating Inquisition scrutiny, and fighting chronic illness. She knew what it meant to live through disruption.
The rhythm is deliberate. Each line resets the soul’s focus from the temporary to the permanent. Disturbance, fear, loss—these are real, but they’re not ultimate. God is changeless; everything else moves. Patience isn’t passive waiting; it’s active trust that God’s constancy outlasts every storm.
Pray it slowly when you wake up anxious or when the afternoon brings bad news. Let each line be a breath. Carry it through interruptions today.
