Scapular of Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Devotions

Like all true devotions, it comes from the authentic faith making you to recognise the greatness of the Mother of God and driving to the filial love towards the Lady and to the imitation of Her virtues.
To express and to manifest the initiative of the maternal love of Mary and our will to be "property" of Mary, there is the SCAPULAR Of the CARMINE. Pious XII defined it "Marian garment" for antonomasia and called it "sign and guarantee of the protection of the Mother of God".

The Scapular is sign of the protection of the Mother of God for those people who love Her: it is the symbol of belonging and consecration to Mary helping Her sons in life, in death and after death.
Besides to be sign of the protection of the Most Holy Mary against the dangers of the soul and the body, the Scapular is above all a means to make us to live in obedience of Jesus Christ and in imitation of Mary, His Mother. Who is wearing the Scapular professes that "he belongs to Our Lady", as Pious XII said, and that he behaves himself as Her true son whenever and wherever.

The FESTIVITY of Our Lady of the Carmine is celebrated on 16th July.
Who receives the Scapular is admitted in the Family of the Carmelo, he shares merits, graces and Indulgences of the Order as well as all benefits coming from good and prayers within the Order.

The DELIVERY of the Scapular, also said ceremony of taking the habit, can be made by whichever priest. The first scapular must be of cloth, blessed and imposed by a priest. When it must be replaced, another blessing is no more requested. It can be used the Ritual formula or the simple sign of cross.
The Scapular can be replaced with a blessed medal with the image of the Lady under whichever title - preferably of the Carmine – on one side and the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the other side.

The faithful promises: to wear the Scapular of cloth or the Medal-Scapular night and day; to do every day an action of Marian mercy (for example: the Rosary, or 7 Hail Mary, or at least an Hail Queen); to pray for the Scapular of the Carmine and go on loving Mary with a valid witness of Christian life.
The Scapular is not an amulet which promotes superstition, but it is a token of the predilection of Our Lady, a call-back to the exercise of the charity and a profession of consecration and belonging to the Mother and Queen of the Carmelo.

The privileges

The privileges of the Scapular are graces and favours that the Lady obtains from Christ for Her devout sons, as reward of their dedication and this promise might have been made by Our Lady to Saint Simon Stock and to Pope John XXII.

The Eternal Salvation

The blessed Virgin said: "This is the privilege that I grant to you and to all the Carmelites: anyone who dies with this scapular will not suffer the eternal fire".
Pious XII said in his celebrating speech: "How many good souls have had their supreme conversion and their eternal salvation also in humanly hopeless circumstances thanks to the Scapular that they wore! Moreover how many people have felt the maternal protection of Mary in the dangers of the body and the soul thanks to it! The devotion to the Scapular has made rivers of spiritual and temporal graces to be poured onto the world".

The Saturday’s Privilege

The Lady has promised to preserve Her devout people, wearing the scapular, and to free them from the Purgatory on the first Saturday after their death.
Pious XII assures the devout of the Scapular that the very blessed Mother will not forget to ask God with the prayer that Her sons, who are expiating their sins in the Purgatory, reach the heavenly home as soon as possible, according to the so called "Saturday’s privilege" handed on by tradition ".

Prayer

Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of the Carmelo,
I bless and thank YOU, because you have showed me your love and you have put me on your holy dress as sign of your protection.
Look after me in the way of the life, keep me faithful in your service, and give me any grace helping me to live my Christian vocation according to my particular state of life. Above all, Virgin Mary obtain from the celestial Father that I grow in the divine charity for being granted one day the eternal life. Amen.
Mother and Queen of the Carmelo, pray for us.

Blessing and imposition of the scapular

The priest, wearing surplice and white stole, says:
In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Saint Spirit. Amen.
Shall God be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let’s pray
Gentleman, Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the mankind, bless this Dress that your son (your daughter) is going to wear devoutly as proof of his (her) love for You and for your mother, the blessed Virgin Mary of the Carmelo Mount; have that for the intercession of your Mother Herself, protected against the diabolic power, he (she) goes on in your grace until his (her) death. You who live and reign in the centuries of the centuries. Amen.

The priest sprinkles the scapular with holy water and he imposes it to the faithful saying:
Take this blessed dress and pray the Most Holy Virgin so that for Her merits She grants you to wear it without spot, She defends you against all adversities and drives you to the eternal life.
Amen

And he follows
Thank to the faculties granted to me, I make you sharing all spiritual goods that are made by the religious Carmelites for the mercy of Jesus Christ: in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Saint Spirit.
Amen.
Shall Omnipotent God, Creator of earth and heaven bless you, as He deigned to admit you in the Confraternity of the blessed Virgin Mary of the Carmelo Mount – Let’s pray the Holy Virgin so that in the time of your death She treats on the head of the Evil One and make you to achieve the palm of the triumph and the crown of the eternal inheritance.
Amen.

Finally the priest sprinkles the faithful with the holy water and says a Marian prayer (Hail Mary, Hail Queen, Sub tuum præsidium, Memorare).