Don Dolindo’s Surrender Novena
The Servant of God, Don Dolindo Ruotolo (6 October, 1882-19 November, 1870), passed into eternity today, 55 years ago. Abused by his father, bullied by his schoolmates, Don Dolindo also spent about 18 years of his life (1908-1910 and again 1921-1937) suspended from his priestly faculties. Called a “maniac” and a “heretic”, he was even imprisoned for a short time for suspected heresy. On November 27, 1940, his writings on Sacred Scripture were condemned. The next day, he received in prayer what has come to be known as the “Surrender Novena.”
Don Dolindo’s response to all of this was to offer himself “entirely to the Lord” saying “Your Will be done.” He expressed his love for the Church and his willingness to suffer for her — even when she was the cause of this suffering! — in these words he wrote as if to the Church:
You humiliated me, but you clothed me with the humility of your Bridegroom. You left me lying wounded on the ground, my priesthood was torn, tested in suffering …, but precisely through the terrible humiliations it blossomed. … I only embraced you more deeply, Church of God, and in the midst of the blasphemous curses of your enemies who described you as a tyrant, I called you “Mom”. You never disowned me; you merely straightened the paths and helped me to hurry with leaps and bounds toward the fulfillment of God’s will. -Don Dolindo
Last year, we posted a new translation of Don Dolindo’s “Surrender Novena” (though this was not originally a novena!). Now we want to post an updated translation that has restored the familiar “You take care of it.” We have preferred to the phrase “abandon myself in You” to “surrender myself to You”. This is more faithful to the Italian, and it also given a greater sense of giving ourselves to God as a fish is in the water.
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 abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
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, turning your thought away 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 abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
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 take care of it!”, 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 TAKE CARE OF IT.
O Jesus, I abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
DAY 4
If you really tell Me: “Thy Will be done”, which is the same as saying: “You take care of 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 take care of 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 take care of it.” I tell you: I will take care of it.
O Jesus, I abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
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: turn your thought away from the future as from a temptation.
O Jesus, I abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
DAY 6
Rest in Me believing in My Goodness, and I promise you by My love that in telling Me with these dispositions, “You take care of it”, I take care of it completely, I console you, I deliver you, I guide you. And when I have to bear you on a way different from the one you see, I train you, I carry you in My arms, for there is no medicine more powerful than one of My interventions of love.
O Jesus, I abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
DAY 7
I take care of 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 and want to evaluate, scrutinize, take care of 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 for 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 abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
DAY 8
I work miracles in proportion to full abandonment in Me and to your freedom from 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 abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
DAY 9
When you see that things are getting complicated, say with the eyes of your soul closed: “Jesus, You take care of 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 take care of 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 that love that requires suffering. Does it seem impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all your soul: “Jesus, You take care of it.” Do not be afraid, I do take care of 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 take care of it!
O Jesus, I abandon myself in You completely, take care of everything! x10
O Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I want to belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
