First day of Miraculous Medal novena: Going out with the “holy” scarves for the homeless.

Today begins the Miraculous Medal novena which is nine days of prayer to end up on the feast day of November 25th (though it is also celebrated on November 27th, the anniversary of an important apparition).

It seems so fitting to me that I should be going out today with the first batch of “holy” scarves for the homeless and needy. You might have seen my post about this new part of my ministry: “Warming the homeless with LOVE, scarves, and sacramentals.”

Please pray along with me in this beautiful novena. I am requesting that in this novena all throughout the nine days which is to Jesus through Mary and Her blessed sacramental, the Miraculous Medal, that you ask for special help for the homeless and unfortunate and if you could, please keep my ministry in your prayers as well. Of course, we don’t want to forget to include France in this novena. The Blessed Mother Herself mentioned France to St. Catherine in one of Her apparitions to her when explaining the Miraculous medal.

Please add all of your own intentions in this powerful novena. Thank you in advance for praying for the homeless, for my encounters with them when I gift them with the “holy” scarves, that Our Lord would really speak to their hearts, and for whatever God’s holy Will might be in this regard.

Here is the novena prayer (but please continue to read the post below the prayers because there is more):

Novena of the Miraculous Medal

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy

   Spirit. Amen.

   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. And You

   shall renew the face of the earth.

   Let us pray.

   O 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. Amen.

   O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have

   recourse to you. (3 times.)

   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, for ever

   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

   our 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 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 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.

   O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have

   recourse to you. (3 times.)

[from EWTN and appears in my book]

***

Novena of the Miraculous Medal (a shorter novena)

O Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of Our Lord Jesus and our 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 form your petition)

THANK YOU again from the bottom of my heart for praying along with me this beautiful Miraculous Medal novena. I pray that Mother Mary may grant you many graces. I do hope that you are (or will) wear a blessed Miraculous Medal.

O, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. (the prayer that the Blessed Mother asked to be printed on each Miraculous Medal).

You can read the whole history of the Miraculous Medal, the Blessed Mother, and St. Catherine Laboure in my book: The Miraculous Medal, Stories, Prayers, and Devotions.

Saint Maximilian was someone who had a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and would hand out blessed Miraculous Medals often also saw the medal as a means of expressing the Total Consecration of his followers to the Blessed Mother and was a means of safeguarding it. He added his own prayer to be said by those in the Militia Immaculatae (Knights of the Immaculate) group that he formed:

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us
who have recourse to thee, and for all who do
not have recourse to thee, especially the enemies
of the Church and those recommended to thee.

Saint Catherine Laboure would pray this way:

“When I go to the Chapel I place myself before the good God and I say to Him: ‘Lord, here I am, give me what you will.’ If he gives me something, I am very pleased and I thank Him. If He gives me nothing, I still thank Him because I do not deserve anything. And then again, I tell Him all that passes through my mind; I recount my pains and my joys and…I listen. If you listen to Him, He will speak to you also, because with the good God it is necessary to speak and to listen. He will always speak to you if you go to Him simply and sincerely.”