I came across this Novena of Surrender about seven or eight years ago. I was immediately touched by it and started passing it out to others because it was so wonderful and profound.
It literally takes seconds a day to recite, but is so extremely powerful!
It is hard to estimate the number of people who have been touched by it.
I know just among my friends, that dozens of people said it changed their lives forever. Those who were prone to worrying, were freed.
Those overwhelmed with worldly troubles and anxieties were able to entrust themselves to God and receive His peace that surpasses understanding just by reciting this simple phrase ten times each day: O Jesus, I Surrender Myself to You
See below for the story of this Surrender Novena and the priest who promoted it, who "referred to himself as "the Madonna's little old man", for whom the "Rosary was his constant companion."
See also below about how Our Lady in Medjugorje asked us to do something so similar and complementary.
O Jesus, I Surrender Myself to You
“A
thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender, remember this well.
There is no novena more effective than this.”
Each day there is a meditation
based on the words that Jesus spoke to Fr. Dolindo. As in the Our Father, we
pray “’Thy will be done’ which is the same as saying: ‘You take care of it.’
“I
[Jesus] will intervene with all my omnipotence, and I will resolve the most
difficult situations.”
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
it's 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 surrender 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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to
you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Day 6
You
are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to
everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse - to men themselves,
trusting in their intervention, - this is what hinders my words and my views.
Oh how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when
I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to
remove you from my protection and to throw you into the jaws of human
initiative. So, trust only in me, rest in me, surrender to me in everything.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to
you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Day 7
I
perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not
thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the
deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever perform miracles,
not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So
don't think about it any more, because your mind is acute and for you it is
very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this
for all your needs, do this all of you and you will see great continual silent
miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to
you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Day 8
Close
your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of my grace;
close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away
from the future just as you would from temptation. 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 all; I will console you, liberate you and
guide you.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to
you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Day 9
Pray
always in readiness to surrender, and you will receive from it great peace and
great rewards, even when I confer on you the grace of immolation, of repentance
and of love. Then what does suffering matter? It seems impossible to you? Close
your eyes and say with all your soul, "Jesus, you take care of it".
Do not be afraid, I will take care of things and you will bless my name by
humbling yourself. A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender,
remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to
you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Mother, I am yours now and
forever.
Through you and with you
I always want to belong
completely to Jesus.
Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo 1882 – 1970
Father Don Dolindo Ruotolo was a Neapolitan
priest (1882-1970), stigmatized miracle worker and "mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit".
Father Ruotolo had extraordinary
communication with Jesus throughout his heroic life, a life that
was totally devoted to God and the Holy Mother Mary. He referred to
himself as "the Madonna's little
old man" and the Rosary was his constant companion.
Padre Pio once said of this priest from Naples, Italy, "The whole of paradise is in your
soul". His name "Dolindo" means "Pain" and his
life was rich with pain. As a child, a teenager, a seminarian and a priest, he
experienced humiliation, which was the realization of the prophetic words of a
bishop who said "You will be a
martyr, but in your heart, not with your blood."
In his profound humility, he was able to hear the words of God.
Even with his hidden life he was
one of the greatest prophets of the last century. He wrote 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." On this
postcard, he wrote words of consolation for Poland and all countries suffering
under the communist regime. This prophecy was realized in the Papacy of John
Paul II.
In his tremendous suffering, Dolindo became more and more a
child who lived his self-offering to the Divine Father. "I am totally poor, a poor nothing. My strength is my prayer, my
leader is the will of God which I let Him take me by the hand. My security over
the uneven path is the heavenly mother Mary."
One of the treasures from the words which Jesus spoke to Dolindo
was the teaching about total abandonment to God. In this novena, Jesus is
talking to Fr. Dolindo and also to you.
As you can see from this novena much
of what our Lord wants flies in the face of normal human
inclination and reason. We can only rise to this level of
thinking through the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit.
We must let go of our problems, stop
worrying and trying to resolve them ourselves. We must believe, trust and
allow our Lord to rescue us from ourselves and supply our
wants, needs and resolve our problems as only He can.
Jesus, You take care of it, should be
the first words that come to mind and flow from our lips. After all,
we have tried to do things our
way and look where is has got
us.
Just do as the prayer says, open our
hearts and minds in love and close our eyes in trust and ask Jesus to
take care of it, He will.
In the earliest years of the apparitions of Medjugorje, Our Lady, Queen of Peace of Medjugorje would give a weekly message to the parish. She was forming them in her school. Asking them to simply read one passage of Scripture each week - a Scripture in which Jesus tells us: "All that is needed is trust!"
Thursday, March 1, 1984 – To Jelena:
“Each Thursday, read again the passage of Matthew 6: 24-34,
before the most Blessed Sacrament, or if it is not possible to come to
church, do it with your family.”
Cathy Nolan of MaryTV, writes: "Matthew 6: 24-34 is important for us. I believe it is the only
Scripture passage that she specifically asked us to read each week. This
Scripture is a simple call to leave our worries about our earthly life
behind, and focus completely on our Heavenly Father and His life for us.
Here is the Scripture:
Matthew 6: 24-34:
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you
shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall
put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to
his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I
tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is
alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe
you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What
shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For
the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be yours as well.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
For Cathy Nolan's full remarks and insights see here:
The above prayer and biographical information about Father Dolindo was compiled from the following source:
© Janet Moore 2019. All Rights Reseved.
