Father Dolindo Ruotolo was a Neapolitan priest (1882-1970), mystic, and “spokesman for the Holy Spirit.” Throughout his heroic life, he had extraordinary communication with Jesus, dedicating himself completely to God and the Holy Mother Mary. He referred to himself as “Our Lady’s little old man” and found the Rosary to be his constant companion.
In his prayer, we see how what our Lord desires for us transcends human inclination and reason. We can only reach this level of understanding through the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit.
We must put aside our problems, stop worrying, and try to solve them for ourselves. Likewise, we must believe, trust, and allow our Lord to rescue us from ourselves and take care of our desires and needs, solving our problems according to His Divine Will.
“Jesus, take care of it” should always be the first words that come to our minds and flow from our lips. After all, we have tried many things our way, and we have seen where this has led us.
Let us follow what the prayer says, open our hearts and minds in love, close our eyes in trust, and ask Jesus to take care of it all. He will!
The prayer of Abandonment comes from Father Dolindo Ruotolo, Servant of God and candidate for beatification. Jesus revealed to Father Dolindo the words that make up this prayer. Father Dolindo, known as “Mary’s little old man,” suffered much of his life, even living paralyzed for the last ten years before his death. He was also, at one time, the spiritual director and friend of Padre Pio, who, likewise, found the love of Christ in his suffering.
Both Father Dolindo and Padre Pio left us many words and prayers that guide us toward surrender to Christ. They inspire us to always meet others with mercy and love, reflecting their own surrender to Christ and His love for us.
As we pray this prayer of surrender, we meditate on the same words that Jesus gave to Father Dolindo. In this prayer, we hear Jesus tell us to give Him everything and put all our trust in Him.
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Prayer of Abandonment
Why are you confused and distressed? Leave the management of your affairs to me and everything will settle down. Truly, I tell you that every act of true, blind and complete abandonment to me produces the effect you desire and resolves the thorniest problems.
Abandonment to me does not mean tormenting yourself, becoming upset or despairing, then addressing me with a prayer full of anxiety so that I may follow you and thus change anxiety into prayer. To abandon oneself means to peacefully close the eyes of the soul, to turn away the thought of tribulation and to entrust oneself to me so that I alone can act, saying to me: “You take care of it.” Worry, turmoil, wanting to think about the consequences of an event are things contrary to abandonment, contrary by nature.
It is like the confusion brought by children who expect their mother to think about their needs, but also want to resolve them on their own and thus hinder, with their ideas and their childish fixations, her work.
Close your eyes and let yourselves be carried by the current of my grace; close your eyes and think only of the present moment, moving away from the thought of the future as a temptation; rest in me, believing in my goodness, and I swear to you by my love that, saying to me with these dispositions: “You take care of it,” I will do it entirely, I will console you, I will free you, I will guide you.
And when I have to take you on a different path from the one you see, I will train you, I will carry you in my arms, I will make you find yourselves on the other shore, like children sleeping in their mother’s arms. What disturbs you and does you immense harm are your reasonings, your worries, your concerns, and your desire at all costs to be the ones to remedy that which afflicts you.
How many things I accomplish when the soul, both in its spiritual and material needs, turns to me, looks at me and, saying to me: “You take care of it,” closes its eyes and rests! You obtain few graces when you torment yourselves to produce them, however, you have many when prayer is a complete entrustment to me. In pain, you pray for me to act, but for me to act as you believe I should act… You do not address yourselves to me, but you want me to adapt myself to your ideas; You are not sick people asking the doctor to cure you, but you are suggesting the cure. Do not act in this way unless you pray, as I have taught you in the Lord’s Prayer:
Hallowed be thy name, that is, be glorified in this need of mine.
Thy kingdom come, that is, may everything contribute to thy reign in us and in the world.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that is, may You arrange in this need as it seems best to You concerning our temporal and eternal life.
If you truly tell me: “Thy will be done,” which is the same as saying: “Take care of it,” I will intervene with all my omnipotence and overcome the greatest difficulties. Look, do you see that the illness is getting worse instead of waning? Do not be troubled, close your eyes and tell me with confidence: Thy will be done, “Take care of it.”
I tell you that I will do so and that I will intervene as a doctor, and that I will even work a miracle when necessary. Do you see that the patient is getting worse? Do not be discouraged if you do not close your eyes and say: “You take care of it.” I tell you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than my intervention of love. I will take care of it only when you close your eyes.
You never rest, you want to evaluate everything, scrutinize everything, think about everything, and so you abandon yourselves to human forces, or worse, to men, trusting in their intervention. It is this that hinders, impedes my words and my calculations. Oh, how I desire your abandonment in order to benefit you! And how much I grieve to see you troubled! Satan tends precisely to this: to disturb you in order to turn you away from my action and throw you at the mercy of human initiatives.
Therefore, trust only in me, rest in me, abandon yourselves to me in everything. I work miracles in proportion to your complete abandonment to me, and to your absence of worries. I pour out treasures of grace when you are in complete poverty! If you value your resources, however few they may be, or if you seek them, you are in the natural field of things, which is often frequently hindered by Satan. No reasoner or ponderer has worked miracles, not even among the saints: he who abandons himself to God works divinely.
When you see that things are getting complicated, say with the eyes of your soul closed: “Jesus, take care of it yourself.” And distract yourself, get away from yourself because your mind is penetrating… and it is difficult for you to see evil and have confidence in me. Do this for all your needs; do this all, and you will see great, continuous and silent miracles. I swear it to you by my love. And I will take care of it, I assure you.
Pray always with this disposition of abandonment, and you will have great peace and great fruits, even when I grant you the grace of immolation, of reparation and of love, which entails suffering. Does it seem impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all your soul: “Jesus, take care of it yourself.” Do not fear, I will take care of it, and you will bless my Name by humbling yourself. A thousand prayers are not worth what a single act of abandonment is worth: remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this: O Jesus, I abandon myself to You, TAKE CARE OF IT!
