Prayers and Novenas
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The Central Association of the Miraculous Medal encourages you to trust in the power of the Blessed Mother in her role as intercessor by regularly praying. We hope these prayers will enrich your own spiritual life and give you peace and comfort today and every day.
The collection of these prayers are also available for purchase in the gift shop.
Opening Prayer:
Priest: In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen
Priest: Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created.
People: And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Priest: Let us pray. Oh God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
People: Amen.
Priest: O Mary conceived without sin.
People: Pray for us who have recourse to you (repeat 3 times)
Priest and People: O Lord Jesus Christ, who have vouchsafed to glorify by numberless miracles the Blessed Virgin Mary, immaculate from the first moment of her conception, grant that all who devoutly implore her protection on earth, may eternally enjoy Your presence in heaven, who, with the Father and Holy Spirit, live and reign, God forever and ever. Amen.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who for the accomplishment of Your greatest works, have chosen the weak things of the world, that no flesh may glory in Your sight; and who for a better and more widely diffused belief in the Immaculate Conception of Your Mother, have wished that the Miraculous Medal be manifested to Saint Catherine Laboure, grant we beseech You, that filled with like humility, we may glorify this mystery by word and work. Amen.
Memorare
Remember, O most compassionate Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your assistance, or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, we fly unto you, O Virgin of Virgins, our Mother; to you we come; before you we kneel sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not our petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer them. Amen.
Novena Prayer
O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus and or Mother, penetrated with the most lively confidence in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession, manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal, we your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if they be beneficial to our immortal souls, and the souls for whom we pray.
(Here privately form your petitions.)
You know, O Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son who hates iniquity. Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone so that our every thought, word and deed may tend to His greater glory. Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at length attain to that blessed abode where you are the Queen of angels and of men. Amen.
An Act of Consecration to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
O Virgin Mother of God, Mary Immaculate, we dedicate and consecrate ourselves to you under the title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. May this Medal be for each one of us a sure sign of your affection for us and a constant reminder of our duties toward you. Ever while wearing it, may we be blessed by your loving protection and preserved in the grace of your Son. O most powerful Virgin, Mother of our Savior, keep us close to you every moment of our lives. Obtain for us, your children, the grace of a happy death; so that, in union with you, we may enjoy the bliss of heaven forever. Amen.
Priest: O Mary, conceived without sin.
People: Pray for us who have recourse to you. (repeat 3 times)
THIS WEEK'S ASK FATHER TOM QUESTION:
In the Book of Christian Prayer, various psalms speak of God as angry, giving out punishment and "sort of" make God some one to be afraid of. Why? Jesus, on the other hand, takes an almost opposite description. I know I don't have the training to interpret the psalms.
A. S.
Father Tom's Answer:
The philosophers of the Middle Ages had a saying I have always thought insightful: Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver. What that means is that we understand incoming information within the structure of ideas that we already have. We think of a new idea the way we used to think about our old ideas. That's what makes it difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.
The ancient People of God lived in a society different from ours. The gods of the people around Israel were like nasty children, doing very human things with much careless damage to the world. The gods were also severe, and got very angry, punished, sometimes unfairly, demanded all sorts of sacrifices, and liked it when you were afraid of them.
God our Father tried very hard to get the Jewish people to understand that God wasn't like that. You'll find the loving, forgiving God even in the Old Testament. But the Jews didn't seem to be able to think outside their cultural box. They felt better when their God was a God of power. They accepted the revelation of God to them, but tended, I think, to receive it the way they were predisposed to accept it. We must always read the Scriptures in an awareness of the context - the very human people who were struggling to understand God.
Jesus often quotes the Old Testament in his preaching because Jesus understood correctly what God was revealing. Jesus does not once portray God in a negative way, but always as unconditionally loving and forgiving.