All holy desires that rise from the Ground must bend inward again, into the Ground, to the presence of God. This is what Scripture calls praying.
The Seventh Letter.
All holy desires that rise from the Ground must bend inward again, into the Ground, to the presence of God. This is what Scripture calls praying.
In Christ, dearly beloved friend and sister!
Your welcome letter reached me safely, and in it I saw, with much inward gladness, your holy desires after pure love and a childlike surrender to the Savior Jesus. God, who looks upon the longing of the simple and Himself awakens such pure desires by His Spirit, is without doubt inclined also to fulfill them in His time.
A newborn child grows by clinging to its mother's breast: so too must one, with all the good and pure desires that rise from the Ground, bend incessantly inward again, into the Ground of the soul, to the presence of God who awakens them there; and so they will surely grow ever simpler, purer, more spiritual, and inwardly stronger — though the soul does not always perceptibly notice it — until at last, and often unexpectedly, they penetrate and master everything, and the essence of the thing itself is thus brought to birth. This is what Scripture calls praying, and receiving, through prayer, grace upon grace.
If the good desires are not watched, tended, and led back into their Ground in this way, they remain mere desires — indeed, often they do not remain so for long, but die away by degrees, because they are too much scattered from without, and not nourished from within. Rejoice meanwhile, my sister, with me, that we have a God who is so inwardly near to us, in whose presence we can lay open all our desires. Let us watch at the post of His door, and not grow weary! He has called us Himself; He will also receive us. Yes, Amen.
German
Der siebte Brief.
Alle aus dem Grund aufsteigende heilige Begierden müssen sich wieder einwärts in den Grund neigen zu der Gegenwart GOttes. Dies heißet die Schrift beten.
In Christo vielgeliebte Freundin und Schwester!
Dein angenehmes Schreiben habe ich richtig überkommen, und mit viel innigem Vergnügen deine heilige Begierden nach der reinen Liebe und kindlichen Ergebung an den Heiland JEsum darin gesehen.
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A short, tender reply to a woman friend whose letter had breathed "holy desires after pure love and a childlike surrender" to Christ. Tersteegen's whole counsel is about what to do with such desires. God himself, he assures her, awakens these longings and is surely "inclined also to fulfil them in his time." But desires must be tended, or they die. His image is a nursing infant: as a newborn grows by clinging to its mother's breast, so the soul must take each good desire that "rises from the ground" and bend it inward again — back into the depth of the soul, into "the presence of God." Do that, and the desires grow "ever simpler, purer… and inwardly stronger," until at last they "penetrate and master everything." Leave them untended — "too much scattered from without, and not nourished from within" — and they wither into "mere desires" and slowly die. This inward turning, he says, is what "Scripture calls praying." He ends by inviting her to rejoice that "we have a God who is so inwardly near," and to "watch at the post of his door, and not grow weary."
A few words and echoes.
- Desires that rise, and bend back in. The heart of the letter: holy longings well up "from the ground" of the soul and must be turned inward again toward God's presence, not spent outward — the difference between prayer and mere wishing.
- The nursing child. His homely picture of how desires grow: as an infant thrives by clinging to the breast, the soul thrives by clinging, again and again, to the near presence of God.
- This is what Scripture calls praying. For Tersteegen, real prayer is not first words but this continual inward turning of desire toward God — an echo of Paul's "pray without ceasing."
- Grace upon grace. What such prayer receives, in John's phrase: "grace for grace," an unbroken supply from the God who is near.
- Watch at the post of his door. His closing image, drawn from Proverbs' picture of watching daily "at the posts" of Wisdom's doors — waiting, unwearied, on the God who has already called us.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-007 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.