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The Brown Scapular & Other Scapulars
The following is
taken from the
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and
Guidelines of the Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 2002.
The history of
Marian piety also includes “devotion” to various scapulars, the most common
of which is devotion to the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Its use is
truly universal and, undoubtedly, it is one of those pious practices which
the Council described as “recommended by the Magesterium throughout the
centuries.”*
The Scapular of
Mount Carmel is a reduced form of the religious habit of the Order of the
Friars of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. Its use is very diffuse and
often independent of the life and spirituality of the Carmelite family.
The Scapular is an
external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel, and the faithful who entrust
themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal
intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spiritual life and the
need for prayer.
The Scapular is
imposed by a special rite of the Church which describes it as “a reminder
that in Baptism we have been clothed in Christ, with the assistance of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, solicitous for our conformation to the Word Incarnate,
to the praise of the Trinity, we may come to our heavenly home wearing our
nuptial garb.”**
The imposition of
the Scapular should be celebrated with “the seriousness of its origins. It
should not be improvised. The Scapular should be imposed following a period
of preparation during which the faithful are made aware of the nature and
ends of the association they are about to join and of the obligations they
assume.”***
Notes
* Lumen gentium
67; cf Paul VI Letter to Cardinal Silva Henriquez, Papal Legate to the
Marian Congress in Santo Domingo, in AAS 57 (1965) 376-379.
** Rituale Romanum,
De Benedictionibus, Ordo benedictionis et imporitionis scapularis,
cit., 1213.
*** Congregation
for Divine Worship, Circular Letter Guidelines and proposals for the
celebration of the Marian Year, 88.
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