The Association of the Miraculous Medal strives to accompanying members on their daily spiritual journey. We also spread devotion to Mary by sharing the Miraculous Medal she entrusted to Saint Catherine Labouré 193 years ago. Throughout 2024, we hope you will allow us to pray for your special intentions. You may always burn a Votive Light of praise and gratitude, or in an appeal for ongoing needs in your life. Request free, blessed Miraculous Medals on cards of explanation at any time. Our Lady keeps you in her heart, every moment of every day. Placing yourself in hers will bring you nearer to God. Know that you remain in our daily prayers. We look forward to hearing from you. For more information, read Father Clay’s letter.
Author: Michelle Weiler
A Visible Sign of God’s Grace
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.
Request a Perpetual Membership for Yourself or a Loved One
“Pray especially to Our Blessed Mother Mary, placing all your intentions into her hands. For she loves you as she loves her Son. She will guide you in all your relationships so that peace may fill your life.”
-Saint Teresa of Calcutta, from a letter written on the day of her death
The gift of prayer can change a life. Enrolling yourself or a loved one as a Perpetual Member of the Association of the Miraculous Medal can help you draw closer to Jesus through the loving intercession of Our Lady. In addition to remembrance in 57 Masses per month, Perpetual Members share in the daily prayers and good works of the Vincentian priests and brothers serving at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Missouri. Fr. Clay’s letter tells more. It is a gift perfect for Baptisms, birthdays, Confirmation, wedding anniversaries, get well wishes, or in sympathy. Enroll yourself or someone else today!
Request a Perpetual Membership for Yourself or a Loved One
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.
Twelve Stars of Mary Monthly Giving Club
Join AMM’s members who support Our Lady’s ministry all year long.
The Association perseveres in its work to distribute free, blessed Miraculous Medals in order to draw more people to Jesus through Our Lady. Please consider joining the Twelve Stars of Mary Monthly Giving Club to help us fulfill this mission. Your commitment offers a convenient way to support AMM year-round while helping us lower fundraising and processing costs, allowing your gift to do even more. Read Father Clay’s letter and call us at 1-800-264-MARY (6279) to learn more.
If you have a testimonial about how Our Lady has drawn you closer to Our Lord, please share it here.
Faith, Prayer, Action
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.
Invitation to May 2024 AMM Pilgrimage – Northern France
The Association of the Miraculous Medal invites members to join its May 2024 pilgrimage to northern France. Staff, members, and friends will accompany Father Kevin McCracken, C.M., on an 11-day journey through some of the country’s most sacred and revered sites, including visits to Parisian chapels and churches associated with the Miraculous Medal, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Saint Catherine Labouré.
Other destinations include: ∙ Cambrai · Amiens · Folleville ∙ Lisieux · American Cemetery · Mont Saint Michel · Angers · Loire Valley · Chartres.
Pilgrims depart Monday, May 13, and arrive back in the United States Thursday, May 23.
To learn more or make reservations, visit 206 Tours website here.
Espousal of Mary Novena of Masses
Send your petitions to be remembered during AMM’s annual celebration of Mary’s Espousal to Saint Joseph. The novena of Masses begins January 14 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and continues for nine days.
Also known as the “Feast of the Holy Spouses,” this observance was recognized by Pope Leo X and celebrated on August 29, 1517 by the Nuns of the Annunciation. Typically, it is observed on January 23. Though the feast does not appear on the universal liturgical calendar of the Church, numerous shrines, dioceses, and Catholic congregations around the world celebrate it.
You are invited to burn a Votive Light to honor the holy spouses’ faith-filled commitment to one another. Your intentions will be placed near Our Lady’s Altar here at the National Shrine throughout the novena and on the actual feast day, January 23. During the novena, join us in praying for engaged and married couples and all unborn children. May God bless and protect the institution of the family as the primary spiritual society throughout the world.
“Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 1:18
Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
Holy Mother of God! This was the joyful acclamation of the holy people of God echoing in the streets of Ephesus in the year 431, when the Council Fathers proclaimed Mary the Mother of God. This truth is a fundamental datum of faith, but above all, it is a marvelous fact. God has a Mother and is thus bound forever to our humanity, like a child to its mother, to the point that our humanity is his humanity.
By Jesus being born of Mary, God showed his concrete love for our humanity, embracing it truly and fully. Brothers and sisters, God does not love us in words but in deeds; not from “on high,” but “up close,” precisely from “within” our flesh, because in Mary the Word became flesh, because Christ continues to have a heart of flesh that beats for each and every one of us!
– Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis, January 1, 2023, St. Peter’s Basilica
The great Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is celebrated each year on January 1. Because the feast day falls on a Monday this year, the obligation to attend Mass is lifted. Mass will be held at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal at 12:10 p.m., CT. All are invited to join us in person or in spirit. Send us your petitions to be remembered and/or request a Votive Light to burn.
Reciting this beautiful Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a fitting way to celebrate and honor the Mother of God:
Christmas Prayer and Blessing
As this year’s Christmas Novena of Masses comes to a close, everyone here at Mary’s Association, along with the Vincentian priests and brothers serving at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, wish you and your family a blessed and peace-filled Christmas season!
May your home be a haven of love and prayer as you strive to reflect the perfection of the Holy Family in living out God’s will. Here is our Christmas prayer for you.
Our office will be closed December 25 – 27 so that the Association’s staff can celebrate Christmas at home with loved ones. However, the beautifully decorated Saint Mary’s of the Barrens Church at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, as well as the Rosary Walk, grotto, and grounds, will remain open for your prayerful pilgrimage. The Visitor Center and Gift Shop will be closed on December 24 and 25, but will re-open on December 26.
Christmas Novena Begins Saturday, December 16
“And the Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us … ” (John 1:14a)
Jesus is the Word made flesh, Heaven’s answer to humanity’s fallen sinfulness. The humble and unreserved “fiat” of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, delivered to all people the inestimable gift of eternal salvation in Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.
Celebrate this Christmas with the Association of the Miraculous Medal during our annual Novena of Masses leading up to the birth of Our Lord and Savior. Add your intentions of adoration, repentance, thanksgiving, and intercession for remembrance.
Your petitions will represent your prayerful presence here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal from December 16-24. Request a Votive Light in honor of the Word made flesh, the Son of God, entrusted to us through the loving, tender care of Our Lady, full of grace!
Request The Beautiful Votive Light Card
Receiving a hand-addressed card in the mail can be the highlight of someone’s day — especially someone who may live alone or be facing a difficult trial right now.
Request the Association’s winter Votive Light card to announce your prayerful remembrance of a loved one near or far.
Your love and care will be long remembered while the rays of your Votive Light illuminate the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, a sign of your thoughtful gesture in the new year!
Request the Votive Light card here. Or, call us at 1-800-264-6279, or email ammfather@amm.org.