The Surrender Novena: Let Jesus Take Care of Everything

“O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”

This simple refrain
captured my heart from the first time I heard it. I had never heard of the
Surrender Novena—the prayer from which these words were taken—nor of Don
Dolindo, its author, but I was so taken with this powerful prayer that I
immediately wanted to learn more about both.

As it turns out,
Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo was, for a short time, the spiritual
director of someone I have written about many times: Padre Pio.

St. Pio said Don
Dolindo was a “saint” and that “the whole of Paradise” was in his soul.

Don Dolindo called
himself “Mary’s little old man.” He lived in such great poverty that his own
family turned away from him. He opened his arms without fear to embrace contagious
sick people, caressing and kissing them. He offered himself as a victim soul
for mankind, and was afflicted with many sufferings, including complete
paralysis for the last ten years of his life. But he suffered with joy, because
he suffered for love.

He also had the gift of prophecy, writing to Bishop Huilica in 1965 that “a new John will rise out of Poland with heroic steps to break the chains beyond the boundaries imposed by the communist tyranny.” This prophecy was realized in Pope John Paul II.

Many miracles have been
attributed to Don Dolindo’s intercession, both before and after his death.

Don Dolindo received
from Jesus the words of Surrender Novena. It is a prayer that is especially
timely now, when world events feel out of control, and we are trying to grow in
trust and abandonment to God’s providence.

“You see evil growing
instead of weakening?” Jesus says in this prayer. “Do not worry. Close your
eyes and say to me with faith: ‘Thy will be done, You take care of it.’ I say
to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor
and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed.”

It’s also timely when
our own personal suffering is threatening to overwhelm us and steal our peace.

“Repose in me,
believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say, ‘You
take care of it,’ I will take care of it,” Jesus’ words in the prayer assure
us.

As I write this, I have
been holding back tears, because I just found out that, at least for the
remainder of Lent, we will not be able to attend Mass in our diocese because of
the pandemic. The idea of not being able to receive Jesus in the Eucharist,
especially during a crisis, is crushing.

Yet this great suffering, this separation, is a chance to be united with Jesus in the Garden and on Calvary. We can join with Him, in a small way, in the isolation, loneliness, distance from God, and abandonment He felt. In being with Him there, we can console His Sacred Heart. (Padre Pio wrote a beautiful reflection on the Agony in the Garden that you can find here that explains in more depth how we can accompany Jesus in His suffering.)

Jesus abandoned Himself
completely to His Father’s will. As this Lent unfolds before us in ways we
never imagined, Don Dolindo’s Surrender Novena gives us a way to follow Jesus
in His total abandonment, and to let Him “take care of everything.”

The Surrender Novena

Day 1

Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

Day 2

Surrender to me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer asking me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.

It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way. Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act, saying, “You take care of it.”

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

Day 3

How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to me, looks at me and says to me, “You take care of it,” then closes its eyes and rests. In pain you pray for me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to me, instead, you want me to adapt your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to. So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: “Hallowed be thy Name,” that is, be glorified in my need. “Thy kingdom come,” that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with your kingdom. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” that is, in our need, decide as you see fit for our temporal and eternal life. If you say to me truly: “Thy will be done,” which is the same as saying: “You take care of it,” I will intervene with all my omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

Day 4

You see evil growing instead of weakening? Do not worry. Close your eyes and say to me with faith: “Thy will be done, You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed. Do you see that the sick person is getting worse? Do not be upset, but close your eyes and say, “You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than my loving intervention. By my love, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrendered myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

Day 5

And when I must lead you on a path different from the one you see, I will prepare you; I will carry you in my arms; I will let you find yourself, like children who have fallen asleep in their mother’s arms, on the other bank of the river. What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.