Pensaci Tu!

84 years ago, on 27 November, 1940, Don Dolindo Ruotolo, after decades of long suffering, received what has become known in recent years as the “Surrender Novena.” The novena’s refrain of “You take care of it!” has become familiar to many thousands of Catholics. Many have found solace in it and turn to it in their need.

The words translated as: “You take care of it!” are, in Italian, pensaci tu. Translated literally, they mean “you think of it!”, and in much of Italy this is what they mean, so when the late Cardinal Pell was given the novena in prison, he commented that the English seemed mistranslated, since it should mean “You think of it.” But the words also have the colloquial meaning of “You take care of it”, and it is in this sense that Don Dolindo used them.

A New Translation

Just over a year ago, after a conversation between the monks about this prayer, we attempted to trace down the Italian original. What we discovered, to our surprise, was that the Italian texts we were able to find did not follow the familiar text of the English prayer. It appeared like the English prayer had been reordered specifically to make it into a novena, whereas the Italian flowed as one single text, given by Jesus to souls. The text that we found had charms of its own, so we embarked on trying to translate it. Later on, we divided it into nine sections so that it could be used as a novena.

How Did It Become a Novena?

If the text was not originally meant as a novena, how did it end up becoming a novena? It seems the most likely explanation is the last line, that says:

A thousand prayers are not worth a single act of confident abandonment: remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this: O Jesus, I abandon Myself in You, You take care of it!

This probably means that an act of abandonment is more powerful than any novena. Yet by turning the prayer itself into a novena, repeating the last line of the original prayer 10 times each day, this little prayer was transformed into something that could be the constant object of reflection.

How to Translate Pensaci Tu?

The first question that arises in translating the Surrender Prayer is how to translate the key phrase: Pensaci tu! The phrase appears 13 times in the prayer. We are familiar with the customary translation: You take care of it! Why not stick with this translation since it is the sense in which the phrase is used in this prayer? Pensaci tu! is used throughout the prayer to convey confidence in the fruits of surrender. One says: “I leave it all with You. It’s Your problem now. I leave it and myself in Your Hands. And I trust You implicitly. Take care of it all. You’re in charge.” So why not stick with the familiar translation?

The difficultly comes with the double meaning of pensaci tu! Recall that it both has the meaning of: You take care of it! and also of: You think of it. The two meanings are played off of each other throughout the prayer. For instance, in what we are calling “Day 5” (see prayer below) we read: “Preoccupation, agitation, and the desire to think about something’s consequences are contrary to abandonment.” This “think about something”(pensare) is the same verb as “You take care of it” (pensaci tu). It is difficult to bring out this play on the two senses of the verb if you use take care of it.

For this reason, we looked for another translation for the words as they appear in the text itself, but we maintained the familiar: “You take care of it!” for the repeated response at the end of the section we have assigned to each day, since this repeated refrain is not properly part of the original prayer.

”You Think About It”

So why translate it literally as: You think about it! In English, this too can colloquially have the connotation of “You take care of it”, like if one person was to say to another: “You don’t do the thinking. You let me do the thinking.” “Okay. You think about it.” But after trying to translate it like that, it did not seem to always work.

Other Possibilities

Various possibilities were tried, and it might be enriching to pray the prayer with each of these, for each brings out something of the sense. We tried:

• You see to it!
• You figure it out!
• You sort it!
• You deal with it!
• You call the shots!

“You Worry about It!”

The option eventually chosen might seem odd or even bold. We chose: “You worry about it!” While obviously, worry and thought are two different things, yet what do we mean by worry if not thought mixed with anxiety and concern? And this does seem to fit the context: whenever Don Dolindo (or Jesus speaking to Don Dolindo) used the verb pensare to mean: “to think about something”, it was not simply abstract, curious, or casual thought: it was concerned and anxious thought. Moreover, You worry about it! can have the connotation of “You take care of it!” in English. It is true that God does not worry, and yet He can be said to do the worrying in the sense of taking care of it whenever someone casts his cares upon the Lord (as 54(55):23 puts it). Thus “You worry about it!” works as a translation of pensaci tu, even if it might have a slightly different colouration.

There will never be a perfect translation, but several people have said that the different emphasis that You worry about it! brings to the prayer has enriched their understanding it.

How to Pray This

This prayer is an invitation to abandonment. Jesus is utterly trustworthy, and His providence is so powerful that nothing escapes it. The Scriptures say: All things work for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Rom 8:28). God’s providence constitutes an infallible guarantee that those who abandon themselves and a situation to God, trusting in Him completely, and persevering in this confidence by His grace, will never encounter anything which will not work out for the benefit of their souls.

It was this confidence that caused Blessed Solanus Casey to recommend to souls that they say frequently: “Blessed be God in all His designs”, and that they “thank God ahead of time” for His Holy Will. It is the confidence that led St Thérèse to say with the prophet Job: “Even if He killed me, yet would I trust in Him.” We recently posted a selection from the Book He Leadeth Me that admirably conveys the spirit of this trustful abandonment to Divine Providence.

Don’t Just Pray It: Do It

This is not meant to be simply a prayer, but it is meant to be a call to place all your confidence in Jesus, as all the Saints teach us to do. Did not St Faustina teach us to pray: Jesus, I trust in Thee? She was not urging us to pray this with mere words, but in very truth! Our own heavenly friend at the monastery, the Servant of God Mother Yvonne-Aimée also taught a similar prayer: O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy Merciful Goodness. By this prayer we are meant to place our trust in the Merciful Goodness of Jesus, not merely to say the prayer. The Surrender Novena cannot just be said. It has no efficacy if it is mere words or a mere formula.

Don’t Just Pray It, but Do Pray it!

Yet there is great value in praying this particular prayer. There seems to be a special grace attached to it. The reports of people who have benefited precisely from praying this prayer seem innumerable! It produces great confidence in God’s providence, and it tends to produce the abandonment it speaks about. Each time we say: “I abandon myself to You”, it becomes an act of abandonment for us, an act that produces a deeper and deeper entrustment to God.

So though one can abandon himself to Jesus without this precise prayer, this prayer is perhaps precisely the right prayer to help one to do it!

Pray It as a Single Prayer or as a Novena

We have divided this prayer up into 9 days, as has become customary. But it is helpful in getting the whole sense of it to pray the entire prayer. We have known people who have for a time prayed the entire prayer each day with great profit!

Pray It as a Perpetual Novena

But there is no reason to stop praying it after the novena is done, just as there is no reason to start over again if one misses a day. One is always in need of the message of confidence and abandonment. There are always things in one’s life that need to be turned over to Jesus in trust. For this reason, some have found it helpful to pray this prayer continually, not paying too much attention to whether a day is missed here or there. It becomes integrated into one’s life, and the lessons and language of the prayer begin to shape one’s imagination.

The Text of the Surrender Prayer

DAY 1

Jesus to souls: Why do you confuse yourselves by becoming so agitated? Leave the care for your affairs to Me and all will calm down. I tell you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete abandonment in Me produces the effect you desire and resolves thorny situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 2

Abandonment to Me does not mean tormenting yourselves, becoming upset, and despairing, then turning to Me with an agitated prayer to follow you and thus change your agitation into prayer. Abandonment means gently closing the eyes of the soul, averting one’s worry from tribulation, and entrusting oneself to Me so that I alone make you find yourselves, like babies asleep in their mother’s arms, on the other shore. What upsets you and causes you immense harm is your reasoning, your worrying, your obsessing, and your desire to take care of what ails you at any cost.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 3

How many things I accomplish when the soul, both in her spiritual and material needs, turns to Me, looks at Me, and, telling Me, “You worry!”, closes her eyes and rests! You have few graces when you obsess about producing them; you have very many when your prayer is fully entrusted to Me. In your sorrow, you pray that I work, but that I work according to your thoughts…. You are not turning to Me, but you want Me to adapt to your ideas. You are not sick people that ask for a treatment from the doctor, but those that suggest one to him. Don’t do this, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: “Hallowed be Thy Name”, that is, be glorified in this need of mine; “Thy kingdom come”, that is, let everything contribute to Your kingdom in us and in the world; “Thy Will be done”, that is, YOU WORRY ABOUT IT.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 4

If you really tell Me: “Thy Will be done”, which is the same as saying: “You worry about it”, I intervene with all My omnipotence, and resolve even the most obstructed situations. Look, you see the disease is progressing rather than regressing? Do not grow anxious, close your eyes and tell Me with confidence: “Thy Will be done, You worry about it.” I tell you that I do: I intervene as does a doctor, and I even perform a miracle when necessary. You see the patient is getting worse? Do not be upset, but close your eyes and say, “You worry about it.” I tell you: I willl worry about it.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 5

Preoccupation, agitation, and the desire to worry about something’s consequences are contrary to abandonment. It is like the confusion little children occasion when they demand that their mamma worry about their needs and then want to worry about them themselves, getting in the way of her work with their ideas and childish whims. Close your eyes and let yourselves be carried by the flowing current of My grace, close your eyes and let Me do the work, close your eyes and don’t think about the present moment: avert your worry from the future as from a temptation.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 6

Rest in Me believing in My goodness, and I promise you by My love that in telling Me with these dispositions, “You worry”, I worry about it completely, I console you, I liberate you, I guide you. And when I have to bear you on a different way from the one you see, I train you, I carry you in My arms, because there is no medicine more powerful than one of My interventions of love.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 7

I worry about it only when you close your eyes. You are sleepless, you want to evaluate everything, to scrutinize everything, trusting only in men.

You are sleepless, you want to evaluate everything, to scrutinize everything, to worry about everything: and so you abandon yourselves to human forces, or, worse, to men, trusting in their intervention. This is what gets in the way of My words and My views. Oh, how I desire this abandonment from you in order to do good to you, and how I grieve to see you agitated! Satan tends precisely towards this: agitating you, removing you from My action and throwing you prey to human initiatives. So trust in Me alone, rest in Me, abandon yourselves to Me in everything.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 8

I work miracles in proportion to full abandonment in Me and no worry about yourselves; I scatter treasures of graces when you are in complete poverty! If you have your own resources, even a little, or, if you are seeking them, you are on the natural plane, and so you follow the natural course of things, which is often hindered by Satan. No one reasoning or pondering has performed miracles, not even among the Saints. The one who works divinely is the one who abandons himself to God.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10

DAY 9

When you see that things are getting complicated, say with the eyes of your soul closed: “Jesus, You worry about it.” And distract yourself, because your mind is keen… and for you it is difficult to see evil. Confide in Me often, distracting yourself from yourself. Do this for all your needs. Do this, all of you, and you will see great, continuous, and silent miracles. I swear it to you by My love. I will worry about it, I assure you. Pray always with this disposition of abandonment, and you will have great peace and great fruit, even when I give you the grace of immolation in reparation and of love that requires suffering. Does it seem impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all your soul: “Jesus, You worry about it.” Do not be afraid, I do worry about it. And you will bless My Name, humbling yourself. A thousand prayers are not worth a single act of confident abandonment: remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this: O Jesus, I abandon Myself in You, You worry about it!

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! x10