Episode Transcript  

One

History of the Carmelite Order

The Carmelite Order was born in the late 1100s on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, where a group of hermits dedicated their lives to prayer, solitude, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Order began when a group of Western hermits, probably Crusaders, inspired by the prophet Elijah and devoted to the Virgin Mary, lived lives of prayer, silence, and penance near the spring of Elijah.

But after Saladin and the Muslim forces defeated the Crusader armies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem near the Horns of Hattin, west of the Sea of Galilee on July 4th, 1187, the Carmelite Order came under deadly threat. They were forced to flee, abandoning Mount Carmel and resettling in Europe. There, they encountered a new threat: misunderstanding and opposition from Church leaders who were struggling to understand the rise of the new mendicant religious orders like the Franciscans and the Dominicans, the Augustinians, as well as the Carmelites. The mendicant orders were begging religious orders, unlike the older monastic orders that were supported by their monasteries and lands.

So, the Carmelites were at risk of being dissolved altogether. Everything they loved was in peril: the future of the Order, and its spiritual treasure all hung in the balance.

Two

The Brown Scapular

What should you do when you are responsible for others, and you face a situation in which there seems to be no human solution? Maybe you’re the head of family or business or some organization, or a pastor at the head of a parish or bishop overseeing a diocese, and what has been entrusted to you is threatened on every side? What should you do?

Turn to Mary, Help of Christians and Refuge of Sinners, and consecrate it to her. That is what the Head of the Carmelite Order, St. Simon Stock, did. He turned to Mary with tears and faith, and he cried out to Mary for help! The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him, surrounded by angels, holding in her hands the brown scapular of the order, a simple, sleeveless garment worn over the shoulders. She said, “This will be for you and for all Carmelites the privilege: that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire.”

Through her intercession the Carmelite Order was saved, and it prospered, and the Universal Church has benefited from great saints like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Elizabeth of the Trinity and many others!

Three

The Sabatine Privilege

Then in the early 1300s, Mary appeared to Pope John XXII with the message that all the faithful who wear a brown scapular while striving to live a life of faith and virtue, especially the virtue of chastity according to their state in life, and who pray the Rosary daily, will gain their purification from purgatory by her intercession on the Saturday after their death. This is known as the Sabatine or Saturday privilege. He then promulgated this spiritual benefit to the faithful in a Papal Bull in 1322.

In the final moments when Mary appeared in Fatima on October 13th, 1917, after the Miracle of the Sun, the children saw several visions in the sky. Among them, they saw Our Lady of Mt. Carmel holding the Child Jesus, which was the final vision of that day. Sr. Lucia later confirmed that the brown Scapular and the Rosary are inseparable. The Rosary is the weapon for these times. The Scapular is the sign of consecration to Mary.

Four

Do Your Part

The Scapular or the Miraculous Medal are not lucky charms or reminders to God, “Hey God, I’m wearing this, so don’t forget to let me skip the purgatory line and go straight to Heaven.” That’s not how they work. They’re reminders to us, reminders that we have to do our part to get to heaven.

A simple process to make sure we do our part is to make three things a habit each day:

1. Daily meditation on the Word of God

2. With a concrete resolution

3. A brief examination of conscience

This is your part. If you do these things, you will change. You will grow in virtue. That’s what the Scapular and the Miraculous Medal are calling you to. But if you don’t do your part, then no sacramental can save you. Not even the Scapular.

Five

Consecrate it to Mary 

Like Simon Stock, we all face things we can’t solve: a loved one who has fallen away from the faith, a chronic or terminal illness, an addiction. It might be some professional or organizational crisis. Regardless, we all face things that are beyond our control, beyond mere human solutions.

When we face these things, Jesus commanded, don’t worry. Instead, do what St. Simon Stock did: turn it over to Mary, consecrate it to Her, and let God and Our Lady solve what you can’t. Then be patient; that means wait with a joyful trust in them while they are working things out.

And every time you are tempted to take it out of their hands and back into your own by worry, say out loud to Mary, “I am all yours and this thing is yours.” Mother, you take care of it!

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