Summer is once more upon us, and with it, the busiest travel season of the year. On behalf of everyone here at our Lady’s National Shrine in Perryville, Missouri, I want to wish you and your loved ones a grace-filled travel season. Please send me the names of your loved ones who will be traveling this summer and I will place them at our Lady’s Altar for remembrance in the Masses and prayers offered there. If you’re looking for a meaningful, travel-related gift for yourself or someone else in need of Mary’s miraculous intercession, be sure to view this beautiful Italian blue enamel Miraculous Medal key ring with silver tone, and our popular AMM logo visor clip made with 24 karat plated gold. As you and/or your loved ones make final summer travel plans, I invite you to consider visiting the newly renovated Church and grounds here at our Lady’s Shrine. Our Rosary Walk is truly breathtaking.

Beginning Tuesday, August 6, at 8:00 a.m., CT, we will honor our Blessed Mother here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal with a very special Assumption Novena of Masses. On each of these nine days we will celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in devotion to Mary, asking her to obtain for us God’s infinite graces. Please send me any special prayer intentions you have. We will place them at our Lady’s Altar and remember them in the nine Assumption Novena Masses we celebrate, including the Solemnity Mass on August 15. You may also wish to burn a Votive Light at the Shrine as an expression of your desire to honor Mary and seek her intercession. Read Fr. Kevin’s Assumption message to learn more about the Solemnity of the Assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary. The Solemnity of the Assumption provides us with a wonderful opportunity to honor Mary, glorious in heaven, always interceding for us!

Sacramentals like the Miraculous Medal and Red Scapular are channels of God’s grace because they lead us to prayer and a deeper communion with our Lord Jesus. You are invited to send us your most pressing prayer intentions to be remembered in a special Mass at our Lady’s Shrine on July 26 (the anniversary date of Sister Apolline’s first vision of the passion of Jesus Christ). You may also burn a Votive Light here at our Lady’s Shrine. Request your own unique Red Scapular that has a small pocket in the back which will contain a blessed Miraculous Medal so that both can be worn simultaneously. Read Father Kevin’s letter about the Red Scapular and the Miraculous Medal.

Send your petitions and burn Votive Lights at our Lady’s National Shrine here in Perryville, Missouri, for the Mother of Divine Grace Novena, beginning June 19 and lasting nine days. Let our Blessed Mother intercede for you with her loving Son. Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal told Saint Catherine Labouré, “Come to the foot of the altar. Graces will be shed on all, great and little, especially upon those who ask for them.”  Our Lady is the Mother of Divine Grace, and she reminds us to ask for God’s grace. I also invite you to say this prayer to our Lady throughout the nine days of this novena.

You are invited to join our Lady’s Association, in person or in spirit, for the Pentecost Octave of Masses which begins on June 9, and ends on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 16. Pentecost is a time of promise. Mary and the apostles prayed for nine days until the “promise,” the Holy Spirit, descended upon them at Pentecost. They knew the power of praying together. Send your petitions to be included in the octave. You may also burn a Votive Light near our Lady’s Shrine. Ask our Blessed Mother to intercede for you as you pray to receive the graces of the Holy Spirit. During the octave offered at the Shrine, say this prayer to the Holy Spirit.