Don Dolindo and the Surrender Novena

Aug 25

By Nadia Smith

How many times have you worried yourself sick –– sleepless, restless, and anxious? Or tried to fix your problems but ran into a wall? Or were asked to start something good (in our case Chesterton Academy) but had no idea how you could possibly make it happen?

Padre Pio summed it up with: “Pray, hope and don’t worry.” But do you really do it? Turns out there’s this little-known Napolitano Franciscan priest who has just the thing to help you out!

Don Dolindo Routolo was born in Naples, Italy on October 6, 1882 and died there at the age of 88 on November 19, 1970. He remains a hidden treasure despite the fact that he is a candidate for beatification and therefore has the title of Servant of God. Many believed he was a living saint, including Padre Pio, who said about his spiritual advisor, “the whole of paradise is in his soul.” He once said to a group of pilgrims from Naples: "Why do you come here, if you have Don Dolindo in Naples? Go to him, he’s a saint!"

“Mary’s Little Old Man,” as he was known, is the one who gave us the Surrender Novena –– that powerful prayer in which we are reminded daily that all we need to do is surrender to the will of God and let Him take care of everything else. It helps take the weight of responsibility and stress off our shoulders and place it at the foot of the Cross where it belongs.

The Surrender Novena is a concrete tool to live out Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” It helps you realize that Luke 12:25 is in fact true: “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life span?”

Don Dolindo would know. He suffered greatly in his life. He definitely had plenty to worry about, but in his tremendous suffering, Don Dolindo became more and more child-like living out his “spirituality of surrender” saying, “I am totally poor, a poor nothing. My strength is my prayer, my leader is the will of God which I let take me by the hand. My security over the uneven path is the heavenly mother Mary.”

Ordained at the age of 23, Fr. Dolindo dedicated his life to prayer and penance at the service of thousands of faithful who asked for his spiritual direction and turned to him for help and comfort. Like St. Francis, he lived in such great poverty that his own family initially turned away from him. He embraced, without fear, those who were sick and contagious, caressing and kissing them. For the last ten years of his life, he was completely paralyzed. He offered himself as a victim soul for mankind, and was richly blessed by God with gifts of prophecies, miracles, and conversations with Jesus.

It was during this time of being bed-ridden that two major things happened: First, in 1965, he wrote to his friend Bishop Pavol Hnilica, who had secretly been ordained a bishop during the communist rule in Czechoslovakia and then fled to Rome, Italy. He told him that “a new John would rise out of Poland with heroic steps to break the chains beyond the boundaries imposed by the communist tyranny.” He included words of consolation for Poland and all the countries suffering under the communist regime on the post card he sent to his bishop friend. This prophecy would later be realized in the papacy of John Paul II, making Don Dolindo one of the greatest prophets of the last century. In December 1989, John Paul II met with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Vatican who expressed his respect and admiration for the Pope, later saying, "The collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II."

Second, he received the Surrender Novena, which is compiled of words spoken to him by Jesus during the last years of his hidden life. As Jesus said to him (and says to you through this novena): "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."

There in a nutshell is the Surrender Novena. It’s nine consecutive days of prayer first modeled for us by the Apostles at the Ascension, when Jesus gave the Apostles the Great Commission and then told them to return to Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles recounts that after they returned, “Together they devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1: 14). Nine days later, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost giving them the power and courage to fulfill God’s will. Our first novena.

Through the Surrender Novena, the Lord will mold your heart onto His and give you the peace you need. Our Board has been praying this novena on repeat and we have seen the fruits in our own lives and with the way things have unfolded with Chesterton Academy. We invite you to join us in praying this novena for this worthy cause and for each other.

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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.