What is the Surrender Novena?
Ever heard of the “Surrender Novena?” It’s a 9-day novena that asks Jesus to “take care of everything” and encourages us to surrender everything to Him with childlike trust. It was originally composed by Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo with words that Jesus gave him. Father Dolindo Ruotolo, who is a candidate for beatification, was a contemporary of and spiritual director for St. Padre Pio, who referred to the holy man as a “saint” and said to him, “The whole of Paradise is in your soul.” Devotees of St. Padre Pio would benefit from developing a devotion to the Surrender Novena.
Unlike some novenas, which are sometimes timed around certain feast days, the Surrender Novena is said whenever one is facing the difficulties and overwhelming circumstances of life or when one wishes to increase in trust and surrender to Jesus. The novena inspires us to let go of our need for control and to trust in God’s will and providence.
I have personally prayed this novena several times and have seen firsthand the graces and the peace that flow when you surrender to Jesus. I encourage those who are going through difficult times to pray the novena of surrender to grow closer to Jesus.
What is Surrender?
But what exactly is surrender to Jesus? The circumstances of life can cause great anxiety, restlessness, and a desire to control or to act. Jesus tells us in this novena that it is “deeply against” surrender to lose hope, be upset, or to simply give Him our anxieties with the expectation that He will follow us and “turn…worry to prayer.” He tells us to not worry about the consequences of anything. Instead, He is calling us to enter into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him by turning to Him in everything and releasing our control. He wants us to trust Him to care for us in all of our needs so deeply that we have no anxiety or fear, but simply a childlike love and trust in a Father Who loves us. At the heart of surrender is love, and through surrender we increase our love and our capacity to receive Jesus more fully into our hearts.
As Ven. Fulton Sheen said, “Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed. It is a law of nature and grace that only those who give will ever receive. The Sea of Galilee is fresh and blue and gives life to all the living things within its sunlit waters – not because it receives waters, but because it gives them. The Dead Sea, on the contrary, is dead, simply because it has no outlet. It does not give and, therefore, it never receives. No fish can live in its waters, no beast can thrive upon its shores. Not having had its Calvary of surrender, it never has its Pentecost of Life and Power.”
When we surrender fully to Jesus, we experience greater peace, joy, and love of God. And we will begin to notice how God is working for our sanctification in all circumstances. We must let go of our expectations of how things “should” be and turn our focus on desiring the will of God, which always seeks the salvation of our souls.
St. Faustina writes in her Diary: “Faithful submission to the will of God, always and everywhere, in all events and circumstances of life, gives great glory to God. Such submission to the will of God carries more weight with him than long fasts, mortifications and the most severe penances. Oh, how great is the reward for one act of loving submission to the will of God!” (Diary, 729)
Hear Jesus’ voice speaking to your heart each day of the novena as He wishes to draw closer to you and to fill your soul with peace.
Pray 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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
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.
Say 10 times: Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you, I always want to belong completely to Jesus.
Enjoyed this novena? Comment below to share your answered prayers!
Marisa Cantu has a master's in political science and international affairs and a bachelor's in political science. She has also studied international studies and French. She has a strong background in nonprofit work, research, writing, and policy proposal and analysis.