Day 1: Why do you worry?

The first day of the Surrender Novena opens with the heart of Don Dolindo's teaching: that anxiety is not the same as care, that worry darkens the eyes of faith, and that the soul that surrenders is the soul that allows Jesus to act. Today we begin by hearing Christ name our agitation directly and asking us to entrust the whole burden to Him.

Today's meditation

"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."

These words, recorded by Don Dolindo Ruotolo in his mystical notebooks, are spoken by Jesus to the soul that has come to Him heavy with anxiety. Notice the words true, blind, complete. Half-surrender, surrender that holds something back, surrender that wants to verify the outcome before relinquishing the burden, is not yet the surrender the Lord asks. The novena begins by naming this directly so we can begin the work of unlearning the habit of worry.

The act of surrender

Pause. Name to Jesus, in your own words or interiorly, the situation you are bringing to Him in this novena. Be specific. Give it a name, a date, a face. Then pray slowly, ten times:

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

Let each repetition be an actual relinquishment. Do not race through the ten. If your mind drifts back to the anxiety, return gently and continue.

Reflection

The Lord Jesus does not rebuke us for caring. He rebukes us for the kind of care that has become anxiety, the kind that has stopped trusting the Father's providence. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life... your heavenly Father knows that you need them all" (Matthew 6:25, 32). The Surrender Novena begins by asking us to recognize that the anxiety we are carrying is heavier than what He is asking us to bear, and that He Himself wants to lift it.

The phrase blind surrender does not mean reckless, foolish, or thoughtless. It means surrender that does not require to see the outcome before consenting to the trust. Saint John of the Cross calls this the night of faith: the soul learns to walk in the darkness of trust because it loves the One it cannot see more than it loves seeing. Don Dolindo's first meditation is, in effect, an invitation to begin that walk for nine days.

If, over the course of this first day, you find yourself returning to the anxiety, return also to the prayer. O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything. Let the refrain become the answer the soul gives to its own habit of worry.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, then this Marian closing prayed by Don Dolindo at the end of each day of the novena:

Mother, I am Yours now and forever. Through You and with You I always want to belong completely to Jesus.

Tomorrow we begin Day 2: more than the love itself, I am offended by lack of trust. For now, return to the day's work and the day's people in the peace of having entrusted them already.