When Everything Feels Out Of Control

 As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

free fall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

— The Avowal by Denise Levertov (1923–1997), British-born American poet

The Mysterious Nature of Surrender

 —A Short Story

One summer evening, around twenty years ago, I was walking home from work, obsessing more than usual about how a business acquaintance was managing a joint venture we agreed to work on. I knew he was using considerable company resources for his personal use. I felt helpless. He was the majority shareholder, and I felt there was little I could do about my predicament. As I put the key in the front door, I heard a distinct inner voice saying: It’s in My hands. It was a grace from God —I hadn’t surrendered my problems to Him, but He was still comforting me.

I telephoned my late wife, Cushla, to tell her what happened. She was with her sister Tricia at their old family home. Tricia, the youngest in the family, had developed a rare neurological disorder in her twenties. The hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy disease leads to muscular atrophy, resulting in Tricia using a wheelchair. She was 37, and her condition had recently deteriorated.  After hearing my story, Cushla told me that she had heard the same message around the same time I had received my message:

'I had been worried about Tricia, and as I put the key in the door in Cypress Grove (her old family home), I heard an inner voice saying: It’s in My hands.

It’s in My Hands was one of many supernatural experiences that Cushla and I shared. Because she was a  highly developed soul and an extraordinary modern-day mystic, I believe because I was married to her and we had become ‘one flesh’, I was permitted to share in some of her mystical experiences. But this time, although we both heard the same message: It’s in My Hands, we had been concerned about different issues. Nevertheless, the answer we received was tailor-made for each of us.

Predictably, I interpreted both messages from a purely temporal perspective. After hearing Cushla’s message, I thought Tricia might improve. I was a long way off from Cushla’s spiritual development. Although rooted in everyday reality, she looked at life from an eternal perspective and knew everything had a divine meaning. She had always believed the future was in His hands, and while she and Tricia were the best of pals and devoted to each other, she was able to accept God’s will when Tricia didn’t get better and died over a year later.

Regarding my predicament with the business acquaintance, things didn’t turn out how I wished. After hearing my message, I wanted to believe it meant that he would cease with his ignoble carry-on and eventually sell his interest in the venture to me. I hadn’t grasped what the supernatural message had really meant. In the end, we fell out. I didn’t get control of the joint venture, which finally failed. However, looking back now, over fifteen years later, I’m delighted I’m not working on the project, which would have distracted me from a more enriching, meaningful life and the little time I had left with Cushla. However, back then, I only half believed in God. I didn’t genuinely trust Him — I only entertained the thought of surrendering, not for His will, but because I would get all the goodies. I didn’t want to reflect on true surrender, where we take the bad with good with equanimity. Nonetheless, my vision wasn’t so narrow even then that I couldn’t see that Cushla’s genuine surrender produced in her tremendous peace, hope and incredible fearlessness.

 The Illusion Of Control

Speaking personally, I have finally realised that most supernatural messages, including the one: It’s in My Hands, are mainly about the spiritual rather than the material plane. Unfortunately, I’m not on my own when it comes to misinterpreting communication from the spirit world. Many people are limited that way. They have become so used to a flattened earthly life that they interpret any mystical experience from a self-interested, egocentric standpoint. Learning to discern the meaning of supernatural communication from a spiritual point of view is crucial. Cushla was a natural, though her spiritual discipline sharpened her gift of discernment. She knew that the world’s self-interested interpretation of surrender doesn’t work. The Western materialist and secular culture, in particular, drains it of the spiritual miracle that it is. Surrender is too often misunderstood: for example, the New Age, desperately trying to appeal to the stressed and weary, often boils it down to a few affirmations, including the fashionable and simplistic mantra of just ‘letting go’ We are urged to surrender, but who or what are we surrendering to? ‘Self- Help’ books, such as the best-seller The Secret, often promote the idea of surrendering to the ‘universe’ (whatever that means) to manifest our dreams. It’s a lie pandering to our ego, which wants to stay in control.

Eventually, if we are aware, and after trying a host of strategies, it finally dawns on us that control is an illusion. We’re not in charge. The script we unconsciously wrote for ourselves didn’t turn out how we thought it would.

We wake up and realise that all our strategies have failed and we’re plum out of new ones. For most of us, it’s only when suffering becomes too much to bear we might turn to God in desperation:

 The Surrender Novena

 Given by Jesus to Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo

 Giving up the mistaken belief that we are in charge offers a profound relief. The greatest prayer I discovered that helps immensely in providing me with a greater sense of peace and calm is The Surrender Novena, given by Jesus to the Neapolitan priest Fr. Don Dolindo (1882-1970). In his profound humility, the stigmatised miracle worker and mystic Fr. Don Dolindo was able to hear the words of God and was one of the greatest prophets of the last century. He wrote to Bishop Hnilica in 1965 that a new John would rise out of Poland with heroic steps to break the chains beyond the boundaries imposed by the communist tyranny. On this postcard, he wrote words of consolation for Poland and all the countries suffering under the communist regime. This prophecy was realised in the papacy of John Paul II.

Father Ruotolo had extraordinary communications with Jesus throughout his heroic life, including receiving from Jesus the words of the Surrender Novena. It is an incredibly timely prayer now when world events feel out of control, and we are trying to grow in trust and abandonment to God’s providence.

As you will see from this novena, much of what Jesus says flies in the face of normal human inclination and reason. He wants us to stop worrying, let go of our problems, and cease trying to resolve them ourselves. We must believe, trust and allow our Lord to rescue us from ourselves, supply our wants and needs, and fix our problems as only He can. We can only rise to this level of thinking through God's grace and the Holy Spirit's help.

The surrender prayer is actually a nine-day novena of short prayers. You can find it here: https://www.fatherdolindoruotolo.com. Prayers for Day 1, which gives a flavour of the rest of the novena, is outlined below:

 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, take care of everything! (Repeat ten times).

 The spirituality of trust and surrender has never been more needed than right now, and the Surrender Novena is moving hearts, changing lives and opening the door to miracles in astonishing ways.