In our Catholic prayer tradition, novenas hold a significant place. Novenas are nine-day periods of prayer and reflection, often centered around a specific intention or devotion.
The Surrender Novena is a powerful spiritual tool rooted in the teachings of Father Dolindo Ruotolo, an Italian priest known for his deep faith and devotion to Jesus Christ. This novena is a beautiful journey of relinquishing control and entrusting one's life entirely to the will of God.
At the heart of the Surrender Novena lies the concept of surrendering oneself completely to God and His will for your life. This surrender isn't about resignation or passivity but rather an act of trust and abandonment to God's providence. It's a recognition that God's plans far surpass our own and that His wisdom transcends our limited understanding.
The Surrender Novena consists of a prayer to be recited for nine consecutive days. Each day, you offer yourself more fully to God, echoing the sentiments of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). The prayer reaffirms trust in God's love and wisdom, even in the face of uncertain and difficult seasons.
HOW TO PRAY THE SURRENDER NOVENA:
Each day you pray the specific daily prayer along with the Surrender prayer that you repeat 10 times.
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 products the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.
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 consequence of anything.
It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see 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.
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 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.
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.
Day 5
And then 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 you reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.
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.
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 deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed 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.
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.
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.
Repeat the surrender refrain 10 times.
“O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”
End with the sign of the cross.
In the name of Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Praying the Surrender Novena cultivates deeper trust and patience in your heart. In a world characterized by hustle and instant gratification, surrendering to God's timing can be so challenging. However, through the daily practice of entrusting our whole life to him, all our desires, and all our suffering, we allow Him to reveal His goodness and mercy to us in new ways.
Our Leather Belt Bag was designed to carry this theme of surrender and comes with a printed booklet of the Surrender Novena.
Praying for you in your journey of surrender, friend!
