Day 2: The Image

The second day of the Miraculous Medal Novena turns to the image on the front of the medal. The image was given by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself in the apparition of 27 November 1830 and contains a complete Catholic theology of the Immaculate Conception in a single visual figure. Today we contemplate this image and let its theology penetrate our prayer.

Today's invocation

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus and our Mother... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The image on the front of the Miraculous Medal shows the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on a globe, with her right foot resting on the head of a serpent. Three particular elements of this image are theologically significant.

First, the globe. Mary stands on the world, in the iconographic gesture of the woman who has been given dominion over the principalities of this age by the merits of her Son. The Catholic doctrine of Mary's queenship (defined dogmatically by Pope Pius XII in Ad Caeli Reginam in 1954, but present in the patristic and medieval tradition from the earliest centuries) is here visually represented. The globe under her feet is the same globe over which Christ the King reigns; she shares in His kingship as the Queen Mother.

Second, the serpent under her foot. The image is drawn directly from Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium (the first announcement of the Gospel) in which God says to the serpent in the Garden of Eden: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The Catholic tradition has read this verse from the patristic age onward as a prophecy of the relationship between Mary (the new Eve) and the devil, and between Christ (her seed) and the same devil. Mary's foot crushing the head of the serpent is the visual representation of this primordial Catholic doctrine.

Third, the rays from her hands. The Blessed Virgin Mary in the apparition held her hands open, palms downward, with rays of light streaming from each finger toward the globe at her feet. The rays represent the graces she obtains for the souls who have recourse to her. Catherine Labouré, in her Memoirs, records that the Mother of God explained: "These rays are the symbol of the graces I shed upon those who ask me for them." Some rays were brighter and reached the globe; others were less bright. Mary explained: "The rays that do not shine are the graces for which souls forget to ask me."

Today's intention

Today, ask the Blessed Virgin Mary for graces specifically. Be specific. The rays of grace that do not shine on the medal are, by Mary's own explanation, the graces for which we have not asked her. Today is the day to ask. Immaculate Mother, you have promised the graces I ask of you. Today I ask... and name the specific graces (not only the principal intention of the novena but specific graces for the persons in your life: the conversion of a child, the healing of a marriage, the strengthening of a faltering vocation).

Reflection

The Catholic theology of asking Mary for graces is grounded in the broader Catholic theology of intercessory prayer. The graces all come from God, through the merits of Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit. Mary does not produce graces on her own; she obtains them by her intercession. But the obtaining is real: by the explicit promise of the Mother of God herself, given through Saint Catherine Labouré, the graces we ask of her she will obtain for us, in proportion to the depth and purity of our asking.

The Catholic faithful are sometimes shy about asking for graces specifically. We pray vague prayers that we suspect cannot be wrong (Mary, help me) without specifying what help we want. The Miraculous Medal devotion gently corrects this. Mary asks us to ask. The rays are the graces we have asked for. Let the ones we have not asked for, after these nine days, be fewer.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.