This simple refrain captured my heart from the first time I heard it. I had never heard of the Surrender Novenaβthe prayer from which these words were takenβnor of Don Dolindo, its author, but I was so taken with this powerful prayer that I immediately wanted to learn more about both.
He opened his arms without fear to embrace contagious sick people, caressing and kissing them. He offered himself as a victim soul for mankind, and was afflicted with many sufferings, including paralysis for the last ten years of his life. But he suffered willingly, because he suffered for love. Don Dolindo received from Jesus the words of Surrender Novena.
As I write this, I have been holding back tears, because I just found out that, at least for the remainder of Lent, we will not be able to attend Mass in our diocese because of the pandemic.
The idea of not being able to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, especially during a crisis, is crushing. Yet this great suffering, this separation, is a chance to be united with Jesus in the Garden and on Calvary. We can join with Him, in a small way, in the isolation, loneliness, distance from God, and abandonment He felt. In being with Him there, we can console His Sacred Heart. Padre Pio wrote a beautiful reflection on the Agony in the Garden that you can find here that explains in more depth how we can accompany Jesus in His suffering.
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.
