Author: Michelle Weiler

Every year, the Association of the Miraculous Medal offers beautiful Easter cards you can send to loved ones. Each greeting shares the gift of prayer, offering your recipients a special remembrance in the Easter Octave of Masses March 31 – April 7) held at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Missouri.

Don’t miss Father Clay’s Easter reflection, which reminds us of Mary’s whole-hearted belief in God’s plan for her life, without seeing proof; without knowing what the future held; without understanding the suffering she was asked to endure.

The Special intentions you share today will rest near Mary’s Altar at the National Shrine to be remembered throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons. You may also request a Votive Light to burn — a sign of your faith in lifting up your needs to Our Lord through Our Blessed Mother.

“Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! Amen. Alleluia.” — conclusion, Sequence

This past year, a couple visited us here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. They had just returned from Lourdes, France. He, a church organist, said he had a brain tumor and doctors had given him no hope.

Parishioners had taken up a collection to pay for their trip. While there, he said Our Lady directed him to drink the Lourdes water and put some on his head. Back home, he asked the doctor to do another brain scan. The tumor had shrunk so much that the doctors were astounded!

Later, he had a vision of Jesus telling him that healing was underway. He said he felt called to visit Our Lady’s Shrine here in Perryville.

Before leaving, the couple stopped in the Gift Shop on the Shrine campus. There, on display, was a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. It had sat for over a year, awaiting a heaven-sent owner. You can guess who took the statue home that day. 

Do you remember the story of Lourdes?

In 1858, Our Lady appeared to a French peasant teen with messages about prayer, penance, and healing. Bernadette Soubirous endured opposition as she frequented the grotto near her home to visit the lady who called herself “the Immaculate Conception” and revealed a spring of water which has become a source of healing and hope for millions of people visiting Lourdes each year.

From February 11-18, the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal will celebrate its annual octave of Masses to petition Our Lady of Lourdes for the needs of our members. I urge you to turn to Mary now, with all confidence that she will intercede for the healing of body, mind, or spirit that you and your loved ones need.

Send your special intentions. We’ll place them near Mary’s Shrine Altar. You may also request to burn a Votive Light for your needs.

“Why must we suffer?” Bernadette asks the question that burns within all hearts. “Because here below pure Love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours … [In heaven] I shall find my Mother in all the splendour of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety.”

Participating in AMM’s octave of Masses offers you the opportunity to do the same — to unite yourself spiritually with Mary and Jesus in joy and perfect safety.

Any offering you choose to include with your petitions, will be appreciated. Such gifts make it possible for AMM to continue Our Lady’s mission of drawing souls closer to her Son.

This includes Mary’s prayer ministry here at the Shrine — daily Mass and prayers along with AMM’s many novenas, octaves, and devotions. Your contribution also enables us to distribute free Miraculous Medals on an explanation card to anyone who asks. (Weekly, we send out an average of 19,000!)

I look forward to including your special intentions in the February 11-18 octave of Masses appealing to Our Lady of Lourdes. May God continue to bless your efforts to serve him, and may he draw all of us ever closer to himself.

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary, 

Our Blessed Mother gave Saint Catherine Labouré the design of the Miraculous Medal in 1830. “Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence,” Mary promised the humble Daughter of Charity novice.

I invite you to learn more about the medal (and us) at www.amm.org. Sharing Miraculous Medals with friends and family members is a thoughtful gesture to let them know God’s love and grace are free gifts for the asking!

One of the main ministries of the Association of the Miraculous Medal is to get Mary’s medals into the hands of those who need one most. 

You may ask for up to 100 free, blessed oxidized Miraculous Medals. These more modestly designed medals come affixed to a beautiful card sharing the story of Our Lady’s appearance to Saint Catherine.

You may share your personal intentions and/or request a Votive Light to burn here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for any loved ones in special need of prayer. As a member of AMM, you’ll share in Mary’s promise and be remembered in the daily Mass and prayers of the Vincentians at the National Shrine in Perryville, Missouri, throughout the year.

Here are a few stories members have shared to tell us the difference their Miraculous Medal has made in their own life:

“Our family suffered the tragic loss of my younger brother. I found a Miraculous Medal prayer card and started to pray every day. I promised Mary I would get the actual medal as soon as I could. A few days later, I received a beautiful Miraculous Medal from Our Lady’s Association. I am so grateful to have this medal to hold or wear while I pray.”

“At age 44, I attended a Catholic Mass [for the first time] and felt spiritual arms around me. I knew I wanted to be Catholic. Now I can’t wait until I receive more Miraculous Medals to hand out to others! I feel Our Lady’s love every time I wear it and JOY when I share it with others.”

“During high school, a teacher gave me a Miraculous Medal to say “thanks” for helping with altar service. From the moment I put it on, I felt I couldn’t be without it — it gave me a feeling of being protected and blessed. I had no idea it was called a “Miraculous” Medal until recently. I was heartsick when I lost it in college. Now I realize it was to be found by somebody who needed Our Lady’s blessing more than I did.”

Our Lady will keep her promise of showering God’s graces on all who put their faith and confidence in her intercession.

Thank you for drawing closer to Jesus by joining the family of the Association of the Miraculous Medal. May God continue to bless your efforts to serve him, and may you, by the divine graces poured into your life through Our Lady, continue to draw ever closer to him.

Yours in Jesus and Mary,

            
                                                

P.S.  The Association of the Miraculous Medal gratefully accepts any freewill offerings with your free medal request. Your generosity helps AMM continue its ministry to provide the visible gift of the Miraculous Medal that represents the invisible gift of God’s grace.

Saint John Paul II offered this beautiful reflection on the importance of staying close to Our Lady in every circumstance of life.

“Entrust yourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary always …
From Mary we learn to surrender to God’s will in all things.
From Mary we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone.
From Mary we learn to love Christ, her Son and the Son of God.”

Today, I invite you to entrust someone you love into the eternal care of the Blessed Virgin by enrolling him or her as a Perpetual Member of the Association of the Miraculous Medal. Membership offers your recipient the priceless gift of prayerful remembrance in a daily Mass and monthly member novenas held here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

This gesture of your love is perfect for all occasions. It is an especially memorable and meaningful gift for those observing a spiritual or temporal life milestone — Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, graduation, wedding, anniversary, or one’s passing on from this life. Enrollment in AMM is both! Your thoughtful enrollment of another carries eternal value in building up the Body of Christ on earth.

Among the many letters we receive from members each year are a number of people who tell us how their grandmother or parents first enrolled them in AMM when they were young, and only years later did they realize the importance of that faith-filled gesture.

The suggested offering for Perpetual Membership is $15 for each person, or $25 for a couple. 

Many members choose AMM’s engraved deluxe Individual Perpetual Membership certificate for the suggested offering of $25 per person, or $35 per couple. Our Family Perpetual Membership certificate is also available for a suggested offering of $50. You may call us or go online to request the deluxe or family enrollment.

Your membership offering, as well as any additional gift you choose to make, supports AMM’s mission to draw souls to Jesus through devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Every offering you make also supports Vincentian ministries of evangelization and service to the poor and helps maintain the beautiful and historic National Shrine here in Perryville, Missouri.

To encourage your prayerful consideration, ponder with me the words Saint John Paul II spoke to the faithful of Krakow, Poland, near his hometown in 1979: “Be faithful to the Mother of fair love. Have trust in her, as you shape your love and form your young families. May Christ, ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life,’ always be there for you.”

Thank you once more for your devoted support of our ministry. Please pray for me and for fellow AMM members, as we do for you. May Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal keep you always in her loving, maternal care.

Sincerely in Jesus and Mary,

P.S. Remember, both living and deceased recipients will enjoy spiritual benefits of perpetual remembrance in monthly Masses and novenas.

P.P.S. You may also wish to give your loved one a Perpetual Membership Medal. Our gold-plated medal on an 18-inch chain is suggested for women; a nickel silver version on a 27-inch chain is especially suitable for men. Each arrives boxed for presentation and can be requested for an offering of $12.

Astronomers say that some 200 billion trillion stars fill our universe. (That’s a two followed by 23 zeroes — our God is an awesome God!)

The Psalmist says the Lord made the stars and the moon to rule over the night — to be the light that shines through the darkness so that everything may be clearly seen.

Mary, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, is seen crowned with 12 stars. Spiritually speaking, she helps us see more clearly in the dark, radiating the light of God’s love and truth. No other human has so fully clothed herself in Our Lord, Jesus Christ than Mary. All the points of light in this universe cannot begin to approach the brilliance of those 12 stars in the crown of Our Blessed Mother.

Your membership in the Association of the Miraculous Medal tells me that you understand how urgently our world needs Mary’s intercession. I commend your desire to help deliver wounded souls into her promised protection through prayer and her gift of the Miraculous Medal.

Today, I invite you to join AMM’s devoted supporters who belong to our Twelve Stars of Mary Monthly Giving Club. These generous contributors provide year-round gifts to help us reach more people in darkness with God’s own wonderful light.

A pledge at any amount earns you a place in the Twelve Stars. If you commit to a monthly offering of $20 or more, you will receive several thank-you gifts. These include a blessed sterling silver Miraculous Medal on a stainless steel chain, a laminated prayer card, and an inspiring soft-covered volume of Marian devotions.

As a Twelve Stars of Mary member, your generosity will reach people like Daniel F., who shares how Our Lady saved him from the depths of darkness:

         My life had come to a crashing halt from addiction. In the month before my final separation from alcohol and drugs, I began wearing the Miraculous Medal … It was by Mary, through who intercession, that I was miraculously restored from an utterly hopeless state. I continue to wear the medal and have been free of addiction for over five years.

        Not only was I given a new life, I have two children today. Two beautiful lives that may not have been. I keep a plaque of the Miraculous Medal in their room, knowing that Mary will care for them and obtain blessings for them as she has done for me. 

Without the prayerful care of spiritual companions he never knew he had, Daniel may have wandered deeper into darkness. He may have never glimpsed the light of God’s love nor felt Mary’s constant protection — the saving graces he eventually embraced.

Please join us. You can choose from three easy ways to join: by automatic transfer from your bank account (preferred), credit card, or by sending a monthly check.

I thank you for your prayerful support for the ministry being carried out here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. In the coming year, may each of us come more fully into the light of God’s love shining through Our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven.

Sincerely and gratefully in Jesus,

P.S.  To learn more about the Twelve Stars of Mary Monthly Giving Club, call us at 1-800-264-6279. Our staff would love to speak with you and answer any questions you may have about this opportunity.