The Association of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Missouri, is home to our Lady’s National Shrine. Our mission is to bring the world to Jesus through devotion to our Blessed Mother and her Miraculous Medal.
In honor of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, we invite you to send your petitions today to our Lady’s Shrine for remembrance in our annual Miraculous Medal Novena of Masses, November 18-26, and at the feast day Mass of the Miraculous Medal on November 27.
I also invite you to burn a Votive Light for your intentions. Your candle will remain lit here at our Lady’s National Shrine as a symbol of your prayers. Just indicate your desire to burn a Votive Light on the enclosed reply form.
If you would like to receive our Blessed Mother’s holy intercession, we can help by placing your petitions here at the altar of our Lady’s National Shrine. We will pray for your special needs. Mary is waiting to hear your prayers and has promised to intercede for you if only you will trust in her loving care.
The story of our Lady’s gift to the world truly is miraculous! It was November 27, 1830, when Mary appeared to Sister Catherine Labouré in Paris, France. Catherine was a devout country girl, who because of her interest in serving the poor, became a novice with the Daughters of Charity.
Sister Catherine was praying with the other sisters in the chapel when she heard the rustling of a garment. As she looked toward the sound, Catherine saw Mary standing on a globe, holding a golden ball that she seemed to be offering to God. Rays of light streamed from Mary’s ringed fingers as the ball disappeared and Mary’s hands swept to her sides.
Mary asked Catherine to have a medal made in the likeness of the vision she had just presented, and the young sister immediately accepted the mission. Catherine endured many trials before the first medal was struck, but the first order for 20,000 medals was quickly distributed. Soon all the engravers in Paris were making the medals and could not keep up with demand. In fact, so many miracles happened for those wearing Mary’s medal that people began calling it the Miraculous Medal. By 1840, only ten years later, tens of millions of medals had been distributed around the world, and today, the Association of the Miraculous Medal here in Perryville, Missouri, continues this mission from our Lady.
In the years since her apparition to Saint Catherine Labouré, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal has touched the lives of hundreds of millions who have worn her medal and trusted in her intercession.
When Sister Catherine saw the vision of Mary with brilliant lights streaming from the rings on her fingers, she noticed that light did not flow from some rings. Mary told Catherine, "These gems from which rays do not fall represent graces for which people forget to ask."
To help you remember to ask our Lady for God’s graces, I am offering you the new 2020 Miraculous Medal Planner. It lists Association spiritual benefits and gives the dates of feasts, novenas, and octaves here at our Lady’s Shrine. It will remind you, as you write your own scheduled dates and events, that Mary brings Jesus to you every day of your life.
Finally, I encourage you to offer the prayer that Mary gave to Saint Catherine Labouré at the apparition of 1830, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
I thank you for your support of our Lady’s Association, and I look forward to remembering your special intentions during this year’s Miraculous Medal Novena of Masses. May our Lady obtain for you and your loved ones the eternal grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Sincerely yours in Mary,
Fr. Kevin McCracken, C.M.
Spiritual Director