The Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel

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THE PRESENTATION OF THE SCAPULAR
The oral tradition goes back to July 16, 1251 when the Virgin Mary appeared to a certain Simon in a small village called Aylesford in England. After he had invoked Mary many times to ask for her protection in difficult times, Our Lady appeared to Simon, surrounded by a multitude of angels, holding in her hand a Scapular and saying: “This is a privilege for you and for those in Carmel, whosoever dies in this garment shall not suffer eternal fire and will be saved”.

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MARIE, A MOTHER WHO WANTS TO DRESS HER CHILDREN
By offering Simon a scapular, Mary presents herself to him as a mother, a mother trying to dress her child. Or Simon like the Carmelites of medieval times, sought the assitance of Our Lady, by invoking her power as Sovereign rather than her quality as a mother. But when she appeared, Mary was not wearing a crown, and her gesture of wanting to dress Simon is a very motherly gesture. What is, in fact, the first gesture of a mother when her child has just been born? What was Mary’s first act in the manger, immediately after the birth of Jesus?
« She gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes » (Luke II, 7).
Wearing the Scapular, for Simon and for all the faithful today, therefore means accepting Mary’s motherly presence in her life. To wear the Scapular, is to imitate the beloved disciple responding positively to the command of Jesus given on the Cross: « Behold your Mother ». And from of that moment, according to the Evangelist of John, « the disciple took her home » (John XIX, 27). Wearing the Scapular is a way of welcoming Mary home, as John brought her home.

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WORK TO BE SAVED 

If Mary speaks of Salvation (« whosoever dies in this garment shall not suffer eternal fire and will be saved »), she also makes it clear that Salvation cannot be acquired  by wearing only a scapular.

As a mother who dresses her newborn unable to dress by himself, Mary wishes to dress her children in Salvation that no one could acquire by himself. But by receiving from Mary a Scapular, Simon does not receive a white clother, this bright color symbolizing Salvation in the biblical corpus. ​

On the contrary, he received a garment of dull colour, because the Scapular in the thirteenth century is a simple work outfit. Peasants going to work in the fields, blacksmiths preparing to work iron and fire, or others, were dressed in this garment, composed at the outset of two large sections of fabric put over their shoulders, covering the front and back of the body, to avoid soiling, burning or tearing their usual clothing. 

From 1280, the register of the confraternity of Florence informs us that the Scapular, carried by lay people (the Carmelites not yet wearing it), began to shrink in size, probably for practical reasons. It only goes down to the waist. There are nearly twenty other types than that of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.​

In any case, every faithful person wearing the Scapular is invited to put himself to work: Mary implicitly asks him to cooperate, to work for his own Salvation, putting into practice the commandments given by Christ. « why do you call me, «Lord, Lord», and do not the things which I say? » (Luke VI, 46), ask Jesus to the crowds who follow him.

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CLOTHE ONESELF INWARDLY OF JESUS CHRIST

To sum up, the garment given by Our Lady evokes the promise of her maternal help for those who will wear it, while inviting the faithful to work for their Salvation.
Who wears the Scapular is a disciple of Christ, a child of the Church, walking beside Mary. Saint Jean-Paul II, in his letter of 2001, says it in his own way : « Piety towards Mary […] must constitute a“ habit ”, that is to say a permanent orientation of his own Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through practice. frequent the sacraments and the concrete exercise of works of spiritual and bodily mercy. In this way, the scapular becomes a sign of alliance and reciprocal communion between Mary and the faithful ».
This exhortation allows a final clarification. If Mary gives a garment for Salvation, this garment is none other than Jesus himself. «For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.» (Galatians III, 27), reveals Saint Paul to the Galatians.

In this context, the garment given by the Virgin is not a garment replacing the grace of baptism, on the contrary: the humble garment of the Scapular, worn daily, means that the faithful work every day to conform their life and their works to their faith, allowing the grace of the Spirit originally received at baptism to unfold in them.​
The Pope Jean-Paul II, faithful wearer of the Scapular, had a keen awareness of it. Let him have the last words : « Piety towards Mary  …must be a « garment », that is, a permanent orientation of one’s own Christian conduct, woven with prayer and inner life, through the frequent practice of the sacraments and the concrete exercise of spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way, the Scapular becomes a sign of covenant and reciprocal communion between Mary and the faithful ».

SOURCES: -  Brother Cyril, Convent of the Carmelites of Paris
                    -  Order of the Discalced Carmelites      

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