Episode Transcript  

One

History of the Carmelite Order

The Carmelite Order, which gave the Church towering saints like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux, 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. Around 1206–1214, they received a Rule from St. Albert of Jerusalem, rooting their spirituality in solitude, manual labor, fasting, and daily prayer in community.

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 4, 1187, the Carmelite Order came under deadly threat. By the 1230s, 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 medicant religious orders. So, the Carmelites were at risk of being dissolved altogether. With everything they loved in peril, the future of the Order—and its spiritual treasure—hung in the balance.

Two

St. Simon Stock’s Plea to Mary and the Gift of the Scapular

What do you do when you are the father or mother, head of an organization, priest or a bishop and what has been entrusted to you is threatened on every side? You 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. He cried out:

“Flower of Carmel, Vine blossom-laden,

Splendor of heaven, child-bearing maiden,

None equals thee!

O Mother benign, who no man didst know,

On all Carmel’s children thy favors bestow,

Star of the Sea!”

Then 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.”

The scapular became the sign of Mary’s protection and the promise of salvation for all who wear it faithfully and live a good Christian life of virtue. 

Through Mary’s intervention, the Order found new life—and through the scapular, her maternal care has embraced millions ever since.

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 Little Office of the Blessed Virgin or 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. 

This is very interesting - 

In the final moments when Mary appeared in Fatima on October 13, 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

Mary is our Spiritual Mother 

Whether she appears as Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the Brown Scapular, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Czestochowa, or Medjugorje—it is always the same Woman. The same Mary. The same power. The same message. The power is not in the scapular or the medal themselves. These are sacramentals—holy signs that dispose us to receive grace by reminding us who Mary is and who we are. They awaken us to her presence and her role in our lives. All the power comes from the Holy Spirit, who carries out a maternal mission through Mary—to form Jesus in our souls. Just as the Holy Spirit and Mary formed Jesus in her womb, so too the Holy Spirit and Mary will form Jesus in you—if you are willing to cooperate by Consecration to Mary and the Rosary.

From the Cross Jesus offered the world a gift – the gift of his mother to be our Spiritual Mother. John accepted the gift and took Mary not just into his physical home but into his soul and into every aspect of his life and he began to live as her son. That is what consecration to Mary is – accepting Mary as your spiritual mother and giving yourself unconditionally to her. But then we must live the consecration – live as a little son of Mary, moment to moment, day after day, in constant conversation with her. Just like the little Jesus would have done with Mary as he grew up under her care in Nazareth. Are you living your consecration moment to moment as a little child with its mother or have you forgotten her?

Wearing the Brown Scapular or the Miraculous Medal or some other sign of Mary is a sign to you and to the world that you belong to Mary, you are her little child. It is also a sign to Satan that you are under her protection, so he needs to back off or deal with Her. So wear some sign of Mary and every time you put it on say – “Mary I am all yours and all that is mine is yours.” Then live as her child in constant conversation with her – just like Jesus did. And don’t forget to sit at the School of Mary every single day in the Rosary. 

Five

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 a part to play.

Jesus is the Fountain of Living Water, the wellspring of divine life. He offers Himself to us freely in the Eucharist and Reconciliation. But we have to come to Him. We have to open our hearts and receive Him.

If we want to drink deeply from this Divine Fountain, we must open our souls through daily meditation. In meditation, we listen to the Word of God, thinking about it and applying it to our lives as we pray the Our Father and Hail Mary’s, letting His Word soak into our mind and heart. 

Conversion happens when we move from vice to virtue. How? By reflecting on God’s Word and asking, “Am I living this?” Then we form a simple resolution—a small step to live what Jesus is saying. This is how we change. Little by little. One step at a time.

Each day, take a few minutes for an examination of conscience. Look back over the last 24 hours: your thoughts, words, and actions. We don’t grow just by experience—we grow by reflecting on our experiences. Write it down in a journal. Go to Confession at least once a month.

This is your part. If you do these things, you will change. You will grow in virtue. That’s what the Scapular and the Medal are calling you to.

But if you don’t do your part—then no sacramental can save you. Not even the Scapular.

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