Book Review: The Miraculous Medal

When a copy of Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle's The Miraculous Medal showed up in my mailbox I tossed aside the other books I was reading and delved into this book.  I love to read books about our Blessed Mother and I simply couldn't move this book into a pile of books waiting to be read when I wanted to read it now.  Outside of the story of how the Miraculous Medal came to be, I really didn't know what I was going to find inside. And no, I really didn't even bother to flip the book over to read the synopsis on the back of the book.

The Miraculous Medal is just one of those books that I simply didn't want to put down.  The book begins with the story of Saint Catherine Laboure.  Donna-Marie does a beautiful job of retelling St. Catherine's story, Our Lady's apparitions to her, and the origins of the Miraculous Medal including the many miracles associated with the medals once they had been struck and distributed.

A good portion of this book relates to modern day miracles associated with the Miraculous Medals.  Donna-Marie tells us the story of how she came to be friends with Blessed Teresa of Calucutta and how the Miraculous medal was a conduit to that friendship.  From that friendship with Mother Teresa, Donna-Marie was inspired to start giving blessed Miraculous Medals to those she met.  Throughout the remainder of the book, she relates the stories of how these Miraculous Medals have worked in the lives of those who have received them as well as how they have affected her.  

The end of this book focuses on devotions to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and contains prayers, and novenas.  Of particular interest to me, this chapter had the Miraculous Medal novena.  After reading this book, this particular novena which our parish prays every Wednesday that had previously been a stumbling block to me, became a devotion which I now embrace.  I suppose you could say all it took was reading this book to win me over.  I had written only a week or two before this book arrived about how I couldn't get into praying this novena and then this book was in my hands and my perspective had shifted.

I'd certainly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing more about the Miraculous Medal.  I know for me the book definitely made an impact.

I was provided with a review copy of The Miraculous Medal by the publisher, Servant Books, in exchange for my honest review.  You can take a peek inside this book at Amazon.