Miraculous Medal Novena Day 3: O Mary, Conceived Without Sin

The third day of the Miraculous Medal Novena turns to the inscription that runs around the front of the medal: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. The inscription is the central Catholic devotional formula of the medal and one of the most-prayed Marian prayers in the modern Catholic world.

Today's invocation

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

Today's meditation

The inscription contains three Catholic theological affirmations in a single brief sentence.

First, the affirmation of the Immaculate Conception: Mary, conceived without sin. In 1830, when the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Catherine Labouré this prayer, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception had been universally believed in the Catholic Church for centuries but had not yet been solemnly defined as dogma. The dogmatic definition came twenty-four years later, on 8 December 1854, when Pope Pius IX solemnly defined in Ineffabilis Deus: "the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin." The Miraculous Medal apparition is widely understood by Catholic theologians as the Marian preparation of the Church for the dogmatic definition: Mary herself, two decades before the Pope's solemn pronouncement, taught the Catholic faithful to call her conceived without sin.

Second, the affirmation of Marian intercession: pray for us. The brief prayer is a request, not an act of worship. The Catholic Church does not worship Mary (the worship of latria is reserved to God alone); she is venerated with the special honor proper to the Mother of the Lord (hyperdulia), and her intercession is requested. The Miraculous Medal prayer joins the long Catholic tradition of asking Mary to pray for us with her Son.

Third, the affirmation of confident recourse: who have recourse to thee. The relative clause defines the Catholic faithful for whom Mary's intercession is sought: those who turn to her, who flee to her, who place themselves under her protection. The same disposition is named in the Memorare (never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection... was left unaided) and in the practice of Marian consecration (the soul places itself entirely under Mary's protection).

Today's intention

Today, before the principal intention of your novena, simply pray the medal prayer slowly, several times, letting each phrase enter your heart:

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

Then bring your intention. Immaculate Mother, I have recourse to you today on this matter.

Reflection

The Miraculous Medal prayer has been incorporated into many Catholic devotional practices since 1830. It is prayed at the close of many Catholic novenas. It is engraved on the medals themselves (the principal verbal element). It is said during the flying novena of Mother Teresa (treated in the Memorare entry) by some Catholics who substitute it for the Memorare. It is prayed at the start and end of many Marian processions. It is, for many Catholic faithful who wear the medal, the most-prayed sentence of their daily life.

The Catholic spiritual writers have observed that the simple prayers, prayed often, shape the soul more deeply than complex prayers prayed rarely. The Miraculous Medal prayer is a Catholic example: nine words in English, prayed by hundreds of millions of Catholics for nearly two centuries, has formed in the modern Catholic Church a deep filial confidence in the Mother of God under her title of the Immaculate Conception.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.