Letters · Erster Band · Theil I (1773)

Of the simple and easy art of praying rightly.

Bd I · Th I · Brief 119 · Der hundertundneunzehnte Brief

Addressee — An Else Otterbeck — a female correspondent; the same Else Otterbeck addressed in Brief 112. Addressed "Geliebte Freundin in der Gnade GOttes!" with the intimate dein/Du (subscription "Dein treu-gesinnter Freund"). Addressee from van Andel 278.
Date — 4 December 1731, from Mülheim.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil I, pp. 343–345), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften, Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred and Nineteenth Letter.

Of the simple and easy art of praying rightly.

Beloved friend in the grace of God!

You do well to exercise yourself in prayer, after your own manner; go on therein without ceasing, and it cannot fail, but God will make true in you also His precious promise: Ask, and it shall be given you. No art in the whole world is simpler and easier than to pray rightly — nay, it is no art at all; and when we think we cannot pray, that is a sign that we do not yet rightly understand what prayer is. To pray is to look upon the ever-present God, and to let oneself be looked upon by Him. What, now, is easier and simpler than to open the eyes and behold the light which surrounds us on every side? God is far more present to us than the light; in Him we live, and move, and have our being. He pervades us; He fills us; He is nearer to us than we are to ourselves: simply to believe this, and simply, as well as one can, to call it to mind — that is prayer. And how should it be hard to let oneself be examined by so kind a Physician, who already knows better what ails us than we ourselves know? We have no need to bring this or that, to compose ourselves in one way or another, or always to see and feel much, when we would pray; but we should only say, simply and briefly, what we are, and what we would gladly be; nay, it is not even always needful that we say it, but we should only let the ever-present, kind God see it — yet not so superficially, but we should seek to remain some time with Him and before Him, that He may, as it were, thoroughly examine and heal us. We must tell Him, and let Him see, nothing other than what is in us, be it now what it may. Do you find yourself distracted, dark, unfeeling? — then tell it to God simply, and let Him see this your misery, and you have prayed rightly. If perhaps a natural sluggishness or drowsiness is present, one rouses oneself now and then a little, and turns again with humility to God; if one can keep more awake standing than kneeling, then one may well help oneself thereby, should drowsiness come over one; to look into a book is, for this purpose, also not forbidden: in short! — one must help oneself at such a time as well as one can, only that one does not thereby quite neglect one's chief aim, namely, prayer, but ever again turns back to it. Deny much your own will and desires, and you will easily come right in prayer; which the Lord work in your soul and mine by His grace! In weakness I remain

Your truly-devoted friend.

Mülheim, the 4th of December 1731.

❦

German

Der hundertundneunzehnte Brief.

Von der einfältigen und leichten Kunst, recht zu beten.

Geliebte Freundin in der Gnade GOttes!

Du thust wohl, daß du dich, auf deine Weise, im Gebet übest; fahre darin fort ohne Unterlaß, so kann's nicht fehlen, sondern GOtt wird auch an dir Seine theure Verheißung wahr machen: Bittet, so wird euch gegeben.

— 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. One of the small classics of the whole collection — a letter that has been copied out, quoted, and cherished for nearly three centuries, because in a few sentences it dissolves the anxiety that so often surrounds prayer. Else Otterbeck evidently worried whether she was "doing it right." Tersteegen's answer is disarming: prayer is not a technique to be mastered but the simplest thing in the world. "To pray is to look upon the ever-present God, and to let oneself be looked upon by Him." That is all. "What is easier than to open the eyes and behold the light which surrounds us on every side?" God is more present to us than the very light — "in Him we live, and move, and have our being" — so prayer is only the simple, quiet turning of the attention to the One who is already there, "nearer to us than we are to ourselves."

From this flows the letter's great comfort: you do not need feelings, or the right words, or a settled frame of mind. "We should only say, simply and briefly, what we are, and what we would gladly be" — and often not even say it, only "let the ever-present, kind God see it." Are you "distracted, dark, unfeeling"? Then tell God exactly that, "and let Him see this your misery, and you have prayed rightly." Tersteegen even folds in the homeliest practical helps — rouse yourself when you get drowsy, pray standing if kneeling makes you sleepy, glance at a book if it steadies you — anything, "only that one does not thereby quite neglect one's chief aim, namely, prayer." And the one piece of real effort he asks is not about method but about the heart: "Deny much your own will and desires, and you will easily come right in prayer." The whole letter breathes his conviction that God is a kind Physician "who already knows better what ails us than we ourselves know."

A few words and echoes.

"To pray is to look upon the ever-present God." The letter's definition, and the heart of Tersteegen's whole teaching on prayer — presence, not performance; gaze, not words.
"Ask, and it shall be given you." Matthew 7:7 — the "precious promise" God will "make true in you," the ground of confidence for the simplest prayer.
"In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts 17:28 (Paul at Athens) — the theological root of the whole letter: God's nearer-than-near presence, in which prayer is simply waking up to what is already so.
"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — the encouragement to "go on therein without ceasing"; ceaseless prayer is possible precisely because it is only this quiet attention.
"So kind a Physician." An image of God/Christ as the healer of souls (cf. Matthew 9:12) — one need only let Him examine us, for He "knows better what ails us than we ourselves know."
"Nearer to us than we are to ourselves." The Augustinian note (cf. Brief 118) — God more inward to us than our own inmost self.
The homely helps. Rare and characteristic: Tersteegen's realism about drowsiness and distraction — stand instead of kneel, glance at a book — the opposite of a rigorism that would shame the struggling pray-er.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, I. Theil, Brief 119 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-119.html.

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