The Surrender Novena: Full Text and How to Pray It

The Surrender Novena is a nine-day prayer written by Fr. Don Dolindo Ruotolo, a humble Neapolitan priest who spent most of his life in a small apartment in Naples writing about trust in divine providence. Its refrain — "O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it" — has become one of the most prayed lines in modern Catholic devotion, shared across parishes, podcasts, and phone screens for a simple reason: everyone eventually reaches a moment where their own strength runs out.

Key Takeaways

• Written by Italian priest Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970), whose cause for canonization was opened in 2017
• Nine days of meditation followed each day by the refrain "O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it" repeated ten times
• Intended for intentions you cannot solve by planning, effort, or worry
• Surrender means handing the outcome to God, not abandoning responsibility
• Pray the Surrender Novena with Ave Audio for a guided audio experience

What Is the Surrender Novena?

The Surrender Novena is a nine-day Catholic prayer in which Jesus is imagined speaking directly to the soul, inviting a deeper trust than most of us are willing to give. Each day has a short meditation in Jesus's voice, followed by the repeated refrain "O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it." The refrain is prayed ten times at the end of each day's meditation, slowly, as a discipline in letting go.

The novena's central claim is uncomfortable: most of our anxiety comes from trying to do God's job. We plan, strategize, run the numbers, replay the conversation we should have had — and God, according to Fr. Dolindo, is waiting for us to stop so He can actually work. Surrender is the act of handing Him the outcome, keeping only the piece He asks of us: doing the next right thing today.

Who Was Fr. Don Dolindo Ruotolo?

Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970) was an Italian Catholic priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Naples. For most of his life he lived in a small apartment with his sister, writing voluminously on Scripture, the spiritual life, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. His total output runs to more than thirty thousand pages. He suffered from misunderstandings within the Church during his lifetime — including a period of suspension from ministry that was later lifted when the accusations against him were investigated and dismissed.

What Fr. Dolindo became famous for, though, is the meetings he had with St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio). Padre Pio, when asked about Fr. Dolindo, reportedly said: "Fr. Dolindo is a saint. Go to him in Naples." Padre Pio directed his own spiritual children to seek Fr. Dolindo out. Fr. Dolindo's cause for canonization was officially opened by the Archdiocese of Naples in 2017, meaning the Church has begun formally investigating his life for possible beatification.

The Surrender Novena appears in Fr. Dolindo's writings as part of his broader work on abandonment — the classical Catholic spirituality of placing oneself entirely in God's hands, rooted in Matthew 6:25-34, the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, and the 17th-century Jesuit Jean-Pierre de Caussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence.

How Do You Pray the Surrender Novena?

Each of the nine days has the same structure: read that day's short meditation in Jesus's voice, sit with it briefly, then pray the refrain "O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it" ten times slowly. The whole prayer takes about five to seven minutes a day. Most Catholics pray it at the same time each day — morning commute, lunch break, before bed — to build a rhythm.

The core refrain that ends every day:

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

Pray it ten times. Slowly. Let each repetition hand over another thread of whatever you are gripping.

The Nine Days of the Surrender Novena

Below are the nine daily meditations. Each is written in Jesus's voice, as Fr. Dolindo composed them.

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; You take care of it. (× 10)

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.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 3

It is like a child's confusion, as in a child's illness, who both wants his mother to take care of him and wants to take care of his own worries by himself, so that his childlike efforts get in his 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; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 4

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 do so.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 5

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 eternal life. If you truly say to Me, "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; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 6

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; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 7

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, your worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 8

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 initiatives. So, trust only in Me; rest in Me; surrender to Me in everything.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You; You take care of it. (× 10)

Day 9

I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to Me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I pour out treasures of graces when you find yourself in the deepest poverty. If you have your own resources, even just a little, or if you seek them, you remain in the natural order of things and, therefore, follow the natural course of events, which is often complicated by Satan. No one who has recourse to the Virgin Mary, my beloved Mother, and who has placed his trust in Me, has been lost. But it is necessary that, when you want help from Me, you abandon yourselves fully to Me. Close your eyes and let Me work. Close your eyes and think of the present moment only, and turn away your thinking from the future as from a 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; You take care of it. (× 10)

Closing prayer after Day 9

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

When Should I Pray the Surrender Novena?

Any time you are carrying a burden you cannot solve by more effort — a health diagnosis, a relationship you cannot fix, a financial fear, a decision where every option looks wrong, a child you love who is walking away from the faith. Many Catholics begin the novena on the day the difficulty becomes unbearable; others pray it on the 1st of each month, or start a new nine days on the final evening of the last.

The novena is not a transaction. It is a practice. You are training your soul to release what you were never strong enough to hold.

Does the Surrender Novena Actually Work?

The short answer is that something happens — but usually not the thing you thought you were asking for. The whole point of surrender is letting go of the specific outcome and trusting that God's intervention may not match your imagination of it. Many people who have prayed the novena describe the same pattern: the external situation did not immediately resolve, but something internal shifted. The grip loosened. The sleepless hours shortened. The catastrophic future stopped playing on repeat. The decision revealed itself when they stopped demanding it.

That is exactly what Fr. Dolindo promised in Day 9: "I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to Me." The miracles are real. They are often quieter than we expect.

What Makes the Surrender Novena Different from Other Novenas?

Most Catholic novenas are addressed to a saint, asking for intercession. The Surrender Novena is addressed directly to Jesus, and Jesus is the one doing the talking. That reversal — the soul reading Jesus's own words rather than offering its own — is what makes the prayer so disorienting at first and so steadying over time. You are not petitioning. You are receiving a teaching.

If you are new to the Catholic novena tradition, it may help to pair the Surrender Novena with one of the more traditional forms — the Novena to St. Joseph or the Divine Mercy Chaplet — to feel the difference in posture between petition and surrender. Both are legitimate. Both matter. The Surrender Novena simply adds one that asks you to stop asking.

Where to Go From Here

If you are in a season where planning, working harder, and thinking it through have stopped helping, the Surrender Novena is worth nine days of your life. Listen to the full Surrender Novena on Ave Audio — spoken aloud in a voice that slows you down enough to actually hear the words Jesus is saying.

And if you want to explore other forms of Catholic prayer as they relate to trust, anxiety, and difficult seasons, start with our guide to Catholic prayers for anxiety. The Church has been carrying people through this for two thousand years. You are not the first. You are not alone.