Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
Friday, October 28th Lk. 14: 1-6 Alleluia Verse: “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.”
- In the Gospel today, once again Jesus initiates a confrontation with the Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath—curing a man suffering from dropsy. “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”
- The Pharisees have no answer and are ready to condemn Jesus because of their hardness of heart. How often are we unwilling to listen to Jesus due to our hard heart or hard head, or both! We want to do things our way and then complain when they don’t work out!
- Today’s meditation is praying the Surrender Prayer – Part 1 and Part 2, surrendering everything to Jesus.
THE SURRENDER PRAYER (Adaptation of the Nine Day Novena).
PART 1: Pray the Surrender Prayer where I am talking to God, my Father. Pray this prayer one time.
PART 2: Pray the Surrender Prayer where Jesus is talking to me—one prayer daily as presented in the outline for nine days. When done, begin again! Don’t stop praying this until your life is totally surrendered to Jesus! This will change your life if done faithfully.
PART 1: The Surrender Prayer – I am talking to God, my Father. Pray one time.
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 and all those I pray for to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
PART TWO: The Surrender Prayer – Now Jesus is talking to me.
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 and all those I pray for 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 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 and all those I pray for 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 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 to your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to cure you. 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 and all those I pray for 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 and all those I pray for 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 and all those I pray for 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 and all those I pray for 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 anymore, 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 and all those I pray for 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, and turn 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 and all those I pray for 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 and all those I pray for to you, take care of everything! (10 times)
Mother, I am yours now and forever.
Through you and with you
I want always 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.
