Hundreds Gather for Mary’s Love at Solemn Novena

Mary’s love can provide us with profound spiritual healing and physical restoration.

The Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal recognized the power of this love through a nine-day Solemn Novena from November 13 through 21 during which hundreds of parishioners joined in prayer to our Blessed Mother, continuing a tradition unbroken for nearly 100 years.

On November 22, the Basilica Shrine celebrated the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Bishop David O’Connell, CM, Bishop of Trenton, New Jersey, served as principal celebrant of the Solemnity Mass.

“We come together today after this marvelous novena. We come together, joined by the same medal we all wear around our necks,” Bishop O’Connell said.

The History of The Solemn Novena

Over more than nine decades, the Solemn Novena has become intrinsically linked to the Basilica Shrine and its enduring presence in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Fr. Joseph Skelly, CM, founder of the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, stated in July 1931, “There is no force [as] mighty as that of thousands of united hearts, joined in faith and love, asking [for] Mary’s intercession.”

Implemented by Fr. Skelly, the Solemn Novena is celebrated annually for nine consecutive days leading up to the feast day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. The Solemn Novena serves as a time for self-reflection, prayer, and meditation on a theme deeply rooted in our Catholic faith. The theme for 2023 was “Mary’s Love.”

A Vincentian’s Experience with the Miraculous Medal

Bishop O’Connell reflected on the occasions he has to stood in the very place where our Blessed Mother appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré, saying he is always overwhelmed by thinking of the Miraculous Medal and all the extraordinary graces given to us through Mary’s intercession.

“Saint Catherine Labouré, a novice Daughter of Charity, could never have imagined what Mary’s appearance to her in that chapel in Paris in 1830 would eventually mean to the entire world,” Bishop O’Connell said. “But Mary did.”