I’m in the Rectory with Father J. I’ve come well prepared. Aside from bringing some sandwiches so we can have lunch together, I’m packing a brown glass bottle for holy water and a mason jar with unrefined sea salt that will be turned into blessed salt by Father. I need to protect myself; now that I’m committed to doing this “being Catholic” thing right, I’m being attacked more, mostly in my sleep. Satan doesn’t like to lose his prey and is fighting back hard to keep a grip on me.
I also brought the brown scapular that I want to be invested in.
The brown scapular was originally given to St. Simon Stock, a Prior of the Carmelite Order, who lived in a monastery in the town of Aylesford in England. In 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Simon and handed him a brown woolen scapular, saying, “This shall be a privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.”
Eventually, the Church extended this privilege to laypeople who are willing to be invested in the brown scapular and who wear it all the time. The “investment” is a specific, short ritual that must be done by a priest of the Catholic Church. But it’s not enough to wear the scapular; it’s not a talisman or good-luck charm. Its inherent power comes from living out the Marian devotion that is attached to it.
According to the website of the Sisters of Carmel:
The Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel has promised to save those who wear the scapular from the fires of hell; she will also shorten their stay in purgatory if they should pass from this world still owing some debt of punishment.
This promise is found in a Bull of Pope John XXII. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and, speaking of those who wear the Brown Scapular, said, “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in purgatory I shall free so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”
The Blessed Virgin assigned certain conditions which must be fulfilled:
Wear the Brown Scapular continuously.
Observe chastity according to one’s state in life (married/single).
Recite daily the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin or Observe the fasts of the Church together with abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays or With permission of a priest, say five decades of Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary or With permission of a priest, substitute some other good work.
I didn’t necessarily expect some kind of supernatural fireworks during the investment, but I’m slightly disappointed that nothing happens at all. I don’t feel any different. Did this even work?
“Patience,” the Holy Spirit whispers in the back of my mind, “patience.”