Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.
God alone suffices.
Nada te turbe,
nada te espante;
todo se pasa,
Dios no se muda;
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza;
quien a Dios tiene
nada le falta:
sólo Dios basta.
A poem-prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus (Poesías, 30). Spanish text as given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 227.
St. Teresa of Avila, also known as St. Teresa of Jesus (1515–1582), was a Spanish Carmelite nun who worked, together with St. John of the Cross, to renew the Carmelite Order. Her writings include her autobiography (the Life), The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, and in 1970 St. Paul VI proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 2 February 2011).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes this prayer when it explains what it means to believe in one God: “It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity. A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust” (CCC 227). It is known as St. Teresa’s Bookmark because, by tradition, it was found in her breviary after her death. With God, we can have true peace even in the midst of a storm.
Benedict XVI summed up her teaching on prayer this way: “The Saint then stresses how essential prayer is. Praying, she says, ‘means being on terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us’ (Vida 8, 5)… Prayer is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life: it begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorization by means of meditation and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the Holy Trinity.”
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