Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
FRIDAY, June 18th Mt. 6: 19-21 “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”
- Pope Francis once proposed to seminarians and priests that at the end of the day, they should visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for 15 to 20 minutes and answer this question, “Where was my heart today?” Then talk to Jesus about that.
- That is a good question for all of us to answer! Where was my heart today? Another way of doing our daily Examine Prayer.
- Anyone who pays attention to the daily Gospels knows where the Heart of God is—focused on winning each one of us over to Him in time and for eternity! Truly our life is a love affair!
- This is the essence of the Surrender Prayer that many are praying every day. God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is all-powerful, all-knowing, all good and all loving; therefore, every day I read His promise for the day, and I pray 10 times: O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!
- Then I leave everything in His hands, responding to the duties and responsibilities of my state in life, the nurturing of my spiritual life, the unexpected events of each day, certain that God knows what He is doing.
- This is loving God – believing and trusting that all He permits to happen each day is for our greater good, and will redound to our happiness here and for eternity. Herein lies the peace that passes understanding and the joy that no one can take from us.
- The Surrender Prayer follows Fr. Ed Broom’s meditation.
GOD’S INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU AND FOR ME! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
One of the principal reasons why we commit sin is because we do not really understand the love that God has for each and every one of us. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen defines love in these simple but profound words: Sin is hurting the one you love. This is a very personal definition. That is to say that sin is hurting and damaging your relationship with God, and maybe even rupturing it to the point of severing the relationship.
The primary question that each of us should ask ourselves in the depths of our hearts is this: do I really believe that God loves me personally, permanently, unreservedly, and infinitely? This brief essay is aimed at helping us to really be convinced of God’s infinite love for us. Consequently, it will be much easier when confronted with temptations to sin to reject them. And the reason is because I do not want to hurt God who loves me. In other words, serious sin is not simply breaking a commandment, but breaking the Heart of God!
How then do we know that God really loves us with an infinite love? The following are a few reasons.
1. ORIGINAL SIN AND THE INCARNATION. A very consoling truth in the Catholic faith is that God allows evil so that He can bring greater good out of evil. Saint Paul asserts: Where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds all the more.” (Rom. 5:20) If you like, God can turn a tremendous tragedy into a glorious victory! One of the clearest and most penetrating manifestations of this truth is the reality of Original Sin and consequently, the Incarnation. God gave Adam and Eve freedom which they abused by committing Original Sin. However, God the Father intervened by sending His only-begotten Son, Jesus, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary to save us. As we sing in the Easter Vigil Mass in the Exultet: O happy fault, O happy fault that brought us so great a Savior. Therefore, the Incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God made man, was done for love of you and me. How great the love of God that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became man to save us from the devil, slavery to sin, and eternal damnation.
1. THE LIFE OF JESUS AS MODEL FOR ALL OF US. Another sign of God’s infinite love for us is the Person, Pattern and Model of perfection that Jesus is for all of us. As to living in the truth, we are not like blind men, or men living in caves, or a man running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off—far be the case! How we are to act, what are we to say, who we are called to become—all of these questions can be responded to with one word and that Word is the Word of God, the Logos—JESUS THE LORD! Our whole existence should be a constant study of the Person, Life, Words and Actions of Jesus. For Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
2. THE PASSION, SUFFERING AND DEATH OF JESUS! In the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in the 3rd Week of the month retreat the topic for meditation or contemplation is the Passion, suffering and death of Jesus. The retreatant is invited to enter into the very life of Jesus, to enter into the very Heart of Jesus, and to beg for the grace to suffer with Jesus—not an easy grace to beg for! Moreover, Saint Ignatius emphasizes this extraordinary truth: Jesus suffered all of His Passion for love of you. Indeed, if you were the only person in the whole created universe, Jesus would have gone through all the most excruciating pains and tortures for love of you. His sweating Blood as He agonized in the Garden, His bloody scourging, His crowning with piercing thorns, His carrying of the cross and falling under its heavy weight, His crucifixion shedding more of His Precious Blood, His prolonged agony on the cross those three long hours, His breathing forth His spirit into the hands of the Heavenly Father, and even the piercing of His Sacred Heart after He was already dead, with His precious Blood and water gushing forth—all this and much more, all the intense and indescribable suffering He went through because of His infinite love for you and your eternal salvation. Stop to meditate upon this profound truth and tell the Lord Jesus how thankful you are. Beg Jesus for the grace right now to truly love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength!
3. THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS. Jesus promised that He would not leave us orphans, but that He would send us the Consoler, the Paraclete, that is to say, the Holy Spirit. Still more, Jesus left us until the end of time, His constant and perpetual Presence in His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. However, of supreme importance is the institution and reality of the greatest of all of the Sacraments and that is the most Holy Eucharist, with the holy priesthood to perpetuate it! Jesus loves us so much and continues to love us until the end of time and forever in heaven. On earth, this love is most present to all who believe in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which the sublime fruit is the Eucharist which reaches its zenith in the reception of Holy Communion. We must remind ourselves over and over again of the sublime and ineffable truth that Holy Communion is Jesus loving us, Jesus embracing us! Holy Communion is really and substantially Jesus in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Indeed, Jesus loves us so much that He wants to become one with us, love in us, abide in us, be part of us. Jesus wants our body to become one with His Body. Jesus wants His Precious Blood to circulate and flow through our veins and enter into our very heart. Jesus wants His mind to be our mind; as Saint Paul says: “Put on the mind of Christ… you have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor 2:16) Jesus wants His very soul to enter into our soul to sanctify and strengthen our soul. All of this truly becomes a reality every time that we receive Holy Communion worthily, with faith, devotion, and a burning heart of love. How much Jesus really loves us in all times and in all places! Understanding the immense and personal love of Jesus through His Mystical Body the Church, and especially through the most sublime Sacrament of the Eucharist, motivates us to renounce sin when it is knocking at the door of our hearts. We do not want to hurt Jesus who loves us so much!
4. JESUS’ PRECIOUS GIFT TO US FROM THE CROSS! The love that Jesus has for you continues and will continue always and even into eternity! As He hung on the cross in painful agony and abandonment, Jesus gave to the whole world, but to you individually the great gift of His Mother to be your mother. The words of Jesus were addressed to you and to me: “Woman behold thy son, son behold thy Mother; from that moment the beloved disciple took Mary into his home.” (Jn 19: 26-27) Jesus loves you so much that from all eternity He willed to leave for your peace, joy, consolation, and love, the gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In giving Mary to Saint John, Jesus was also giving Mary to be your tender, loving, meek and humble, and compassionate Mother. You can turn to Mary as your Mother in all times, places, circumstances, and contradictions of life. Mary is always present and willing to listen to you, console you, comfort you, and love you with the heart of the most loving of mothers.
In conclusion, when temptation to sin knocks at the door of our hearts, we should call to mind the Incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God made man, His life on earth, His Passion and death that He suffered for us, the Church and especially the Eucharist that He left us, and lastly the gift of Mary as our loving Mother. Keenly convinced of these truths, we can more easily say NO to sin and YES to love and a deep friendship with Jesus, the faithful Friend who will never fail us!
SURRENDER PRAYER
God, my Father, I thank you for all that you are, and all that you do for me through your son Jesus Christ. I praise you for my life, for your mercy and for your Eucharist. In Jesus’ name, Father, I place myself entirely in your Heart. I surrender to you my whole self, my heart, my mind, my memory, my imagination, my will, my emotions, my passions, my body, my sexuality, my desire for human approval, my weaknesses, my desires, my sins.
I surrender every person in my life to you. I surrender every situation in my life to you. I surrender every relationship I am in to you. I surrender every concern I have to you. I surrender every fear I have to you. I surrender every doubt I have to you. I surrender all confusion I have to you. I surrender all sadness I am experiencing in my heart to you. I surrender all my wounds to you. I surrender all anxiety and worry I have to you. I surrender all that deceives me in my heart to you. I trust you to care for me and others in a perfectly loving way.
As I have emptied myself, and surrendered everything to you, I ask you now, Father, to fill me with your Holy Spirit and all the gifts and fruits of your Spirit. Holy Spirit you are the source of love, hope, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, tenderness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. Purify my desires. Help me to open my heart to you. Help me to become perfectly receptive as a pure child. Help me to believe in your love for me. Help me to hope in your love. Help me to receive from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus all grace and virtues necessary for me to become the person you created me to be. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ, Your son, God Almighty Father.
O Most Holy Immaculate Virgin Mary. I entrust this prayer to your Heart, and ask you to press it to your wounded heart and intercede for me to your Son Jesus. Please help me to be as you are, a perfect disciple, an obedient servant, a true child of God. Amen
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Continue with 7 Days Shorter Surrender Prayers – one per day…
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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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 consequences of anything.
It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to 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”.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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 it’s 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 to cure you, but rather sick people who tell 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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Day 5
And when 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 your reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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 the 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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
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.
O 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.
These words come from the living experience of the presence of Jesus in the prayer life of Father Dolindo Ruotolo and you are invited to make them your own as you pray the novena.
