This November 27 is the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.  It is a celebration for all in the Vincentian Family.  This year of 2020 is the 190th anniversary of the gift of the Medal to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830.  I have written a small article about the Miraculous Medal and its gift to us.  It has always been a gift to evangelize the poor.

“…they (the poor) scarcely have the expression or the mind of rational persons, so crude and vulgar they are. But turn the medal, and you will see by the light of faith that the Son of God, who willed to be poor, …scarcely had a human face in his passion, and passed for a madman in the mind of the Gentiles …(Yet) he describes himself as the evangelizer of the poor: He sent me to bring good news to the poor!” St. Vincent, Conference, “The Spirit of Faith.”

This year of 2020 has already distinguished itself as impoverished, compelling all to see the Face of God in this pandemic.  Feeling powerless, not new for the poor, is the shared experience of all.

Yet this November 27th, is also the 190th Anniversary of the gift of the Miraculous Medal to the world.  It is the gift of “anti-powerlessness.” For all who wear it, it is divine power.

The front of the medal already proclaims the omnipotent power of Mary who daily opens her arms to intimately embrace us.  BUT TURN THE MEDAL OVER, and the power of all of Salvation is made present.

On this side, surrounded by the 12 stars of the apostles, the perpetual gift of Redemption, is symbolized in the Cross, that rests on the “M”, the symbol of Mary and her motherhood.

Beneath this Cross on Mary are the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  It is these two hearts that, in separate manifestations, showed us the never-ending divine love and care for us.  In the most profound way, this medal asks us to tell the world of the divine hearts of love for each and every person, especially the miserable and dejected.

The celebration of the gift of the Miraculous Medal on November 27 is not only a celebration of help given to us by Mary.  It is so much more a call to evangelization.

We, who wear the medal, proclaim that we are always gathered around Christ and Mary, symbolized not as human figures but as symbols of eternal love for us and others – two sacred hearts.

The medal calls us to tell others of this active divine love, especially those specified by the  Corporal Works of Mercy, the homeless, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and all who suffer the fake signs of gloom and evil.

On November 27, celebrate your call to evangelize the poor.  Bring them the Good News of Jesus and Mary’s Love for them.  Show them the Miraculous Medal, and its symbols, given to us by Mary, of two Sacred Hearts on fire with love for them.  Just “Turn the Medal over…”

The specific prayers and readings for the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, can be found in six languages on our website, the International Association of the Miraculous Medal, www.amminter.org – click on “Pray with us.”