What is Carmelite scapular?

Today we celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patronal feast of the Carmelite Order, who takes their name from Mount Carmel in Palestine.

I’m sure you remember the story from the book of Kings, where the prophet Elijah challenged 450 prophets of Baal to prove the divinity of their God. It was of course Elijah who showed the supremacy of the True God of Israel.

Carmelite tradition suggests that a community of Jewish hermits had lived at that site from the time of Elijah until the Carmelites were founded there in the late 12th century. How did this happen?

Well, during the Crusades in 12th century, a group of Westerners took up the life of hermits by the well of St. Elijah on Mt. Carmel. They built a chapel in honour of the Mother of Jesus, conscious that they were living in the area made holy by Jesus and his Mother (You know, Nazareth is less than 20 miles away).

When Saracens toppled the Latin kingdom of the Crusaders, the hermits of Carmel had to flee the holy mountain and return to the West, I mean – to Europe. Some of them went to Cypress, another group to Sicily, France, England, Ireland and other countries. They brought with them little more than their title of: “Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.”

In Europe they were entering a hostile world cluttered with many new religious families. The arrival of strangers from Mount Carmel was inauspicious, they were frowned upon.

Because of their hermit’s background, everywhere they went in Europe, they have been recognized as a too strict or too conservative Community Order. The Prior General of all Carmelites – Simon Stock – who was based at Aylesford in England, when he saw all these accusations and even persecutes, he thought that it is the end of Carmelite Order. What has he done?

He put the order that all Carmelite brothers have to start fasting, and praying to Our Lady about Her help. And what’s happened?

On the 16th of July 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Simon Stock, and She said to him: Receive, my beloved son, this scapular of thy Order; it is the special sign of my favour, which I have obtained for thee and for thy children of Mount Carmel. He who dies clothed with this scapular shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the badge of salvation, a shield in time of danger, and a pledge of special peace and protection.

Right… What is this scapular which Our Lady has given to Simon and to all members of Carmelite Order?

The scapular was originally a large, brown apron like garment that would be placed over the Carmelite’s good clothes. And while they would be out in the fields working, the scapular would protect the good clothes from getting dirty. So, at the beginning scapular was protection against dirt during the physical works. It was exactly a broad band of cloth over the shoulders, falling below the knees toward the feet front and back as an apron, worn still as part of the religious habit by a number of orders of monks and nuns. But after the revelation of Our Lady, it became a powerful symbol of the protection of The Blessed Virgin Mary, for we have received the “good clothing” of our baptism, and She protects us from the dirt and evil of the world, helping us to keep the dignity of our baptismal garment unstained through this pilgrimage of the Christian life on earth.

As it was gradually adapted for use by the laity, it became two small panels of brown cloth joined by strings and worn over the shoulders as a sign that that person belongs to Mary and is protected by Her Love.

So, here is the whole story of today’s feast in a nutshell. But… There is something else I want to tell you about scapular.

In today’s Gospel Jesus says: Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.

If we look for the earliest references to the scapular, we find them in the Carmelite constitutions of 1281 in which it was prescribed that all Carmelite friars should wear their tunics and scapulars to bed under penalty of a serious fault. It was also prescribed that the white mantle or coat be made in such a way that the scapular would not be hidden.

Before I accepted & put scapular on my shoulders (in 1997), I was curious of the reason of that prescription. It seemed to me strange… you know… to wear scapulars to bed… So, I have done the research, AND – the reason for these prescriptions was not a Marian one. At the time, the scapular was seen as signifying the “yoke of Christ”. This yoke of Christ in turn pointed to obedience. And that explains the strictness of the legislation. Taking off the scapular was like taking off the yoke of Christ, or rebelling against Christ and His Mother.

The great theologian, Karl Rahner, from Germany who died 36 years ago, made the statement that the Christian of the future would either be a mystic or would be nothing at all. He was convinced that the Christian who simply followed the patterns of society was not going to be able to survive because Christian structures, Christian social patterns, were all falling apart and would continue to break down.

We don’t have to be told that this is happening all around us today. And so we are either going to live from the inside out with a powerful faith or we are going to lose our way, because the markers are not there for us in the way they used to be.

Mary is the perfect model of this woman of faith who constantly accepted what happened to her, not unthinkingly, not without processing and trying to figure out what God is doing and saying, but always accepting the reality with trust and with hope. This is the challenge in our life today. Today many of the faithful keep coming back to scapular. They recognize in it not a magical charm but a sign of one’s decision to follow Jesus as did Mary, the perfect model of all the disciples of Christ.

So, Our Lady of Mount Carmel – pray for us!