Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
The Prayer of Simplicity
To let prayer simplify from many words and thoughts down to a single, silent, loving attention resting on God — a bare ‘regard’ of the heart that needs no images, reasoning, or effort, only quiet presence.
In 5 lines: As prayer grows easy, let the words and reasoning fall away. Hold one simple, silent, loving attention on God — a quiet inward gaze, nothing more. Don’t think, picture, or strive; just rest and receive. When you drift, gently return (a short phrase can re-gather you, then drop it). Expect dry spells — keep the same quiet attention through them, without self-blame.
What it is
After a soul has practised the beginner’s method for a while, Madame Guyon says prayer naturally simplifies: the many words, considerations, and efforts fall away, and what remains is a single, quiet, loving attention to God — present without arguing, picturing, or striving.
She calls this the Second Degree of Prayer, and names it the Prayer of Simplicity (also “the Prayer of Faith and Stillness,” and, more loosely, contemplation). The heart simply looks toward God and rests — a bare loving regard.
Where “praying the Scripture” still uses a phrase as a doorway, the Prayer of Simplicity has largely let go of the doorway: attention is no longer fed by reading or reasoning but holds itself, gently, on the felt Presence.
Guyon insists this is not advanced or rare — it grows on its own out of faithful, easy practice, and the simpler it becomes, the better. (The Inner Creates the Outer read inwardly: attention narrows to one silent object and is held without force; Everything Happens in the Now: it is a resting now, not a thinking-about.)
The Method
From A Short and Easy Method of Prayer (faithfully described, not reproduced):
- Let words drop as they become unnecessary. When recollection comes more easily and prayer grows “easy, sweet, and delightful,” do not keep loading it with phrases and reflections. As the discursive part quiets, let it. You are moving from talking about God to simply being with Him.
- Hold a single, loving attention on God. Turn the heart toward the Presence and just remain there — a gentle inward “regard,” a quiet gaze of love, with no particular thought, image, or petition required. Guyon’s whole point is simplicity: one bare movement of love, not a busy interior.
- Do nothing — receptively. This is not active thinking but a waiting in stillness. Don’t manufacture feelings, insights, or words. Let the attention rest, soft and continuous, like resting your gaze on something you love.
- When attention strays, return without strain. The mind will wander; the moment you notice, gently turn back to the simple loving attention — or, if needed, touch one short phrase to re-gather, then drop it again. No self-reproach; the turning-back is the practice.
- Accept dryness as part of it. Guyon devotes a whole section to spiritual aridity: when no sweetness comes, do not strive harder or conclude you have failed. Keep the same quiet, faithful attention; dryness is to be borne patiently, not fixed.
- Carry the simplicity outward. This recollected, simple attention is meant to become a settled habit that follows you into ordinary life — a quiet inner turning toward God beneath whatever you are doing. (Sourcing note: “Second Degree,” “Prayer of Simplicity / of Faith and Stillness,” the description of prayer becoming “easy, sweet, and delightful,” and the treatment of dryness are Guyon’s, attributed. Descriptions are faithful paraphrase, not reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon (1648–1717) was the most famous popularizer of Quietism, the “way of pure love” centred on passive, heart-led prayer and abandonment to God.
In A Short and Easy Method of Prayer (1685) she maps prayer in degrees: a beginner’s stage (meditative reading / the prayer of the heart) maturing into the Second Degree — the Prayer of Simplicity, a wordless loving stillness.
The book was hugely popular but ignited the Quietist controversy; Guyon was condemned and imprisoned (Bastille, 1695–1703). Her degrees of prayer stand in the apophatic line running from the Cloud of Unknowing through Teresa and John of the Cross, and her work later shaped Protestant pietists and devotional writers.
The Traditions' versions
Praying the Scripture (Guyon, First Degree) — the meditative-reading doorway this practice grows out of.
- Prayer of Recollection / Quiet (Teresa of Ávila) — the same simplifying of prayer toward quiet loving attention.
- Centering Prayer (Keating) — a modern method for the same wordless resting in God, using a sacred word only to return.
- The Cloud of Unknowing — loving attention to God beyond concept and image; the apophatic root.
- Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence) — carrying that simple loving attention into all of daily life.
- Open-monitoring / “choiceless” meditation — the secular structural cousin: bare, low-effort awareness, gently sustained.
Common refinements
Refusing to simplify. Clinging to words and reflections once prayer wants to go quiet is the central error; let the discursive scaffolding fall when it becomes unnecessary.
- Forcing the stillness. Simplicity is received, not manufactured. Straining to feel a Presence or empty the mind by willpower reintroduces the effort the practice is meant to drop.
- Treating dryness as failure. Guyon expects aridity and tells you to keep the same quiet attention through it. Quitting in dry spells is the most common way the practice dies.
- Self-reproach over wandering. Wandering is normal; the gentle return is the exercise, not a lapse.
- Hunting for experiences. Lights, sweetness, and insights are not the goal — bare loving attention is. Chasing phenomena is its own distraction.