A question about the brown scapular

[Aeden]

So here’s something that bugs me a bit: I can’t find whether or not you need a priest to commute the little office to the five decades of the rosary. Some sources say you need it, others say you don’t. Does anybody have an authoritative source for me?

Also: if I forget to say the five decades before midnight, does that do anything to me as someone who was invested in the confraternity? I know it is probably a may be a foolish question, but does forgetting to say the five decades (or whatever it is for you) invalidate the membership in the confraternity or anything like that?

 

[BiffRuffle]

I’m not sure about the brown scapular, but by enrolling in the Confraternity of the Rosary, you make a pledge to say 3 sets of mysteries a week (they are not sure if 4 are required now, or still only three, so the older standard remains.) However, it is not under penalty of sin. If you forget, or otherwise miss saying the rosary, there’s no penalty to you, just, I guess, you breaking your promise to God and the other members of the confraternity. I imagine the brown scapular should be the same way - if you forget, oh well, but try harder.

 

[DavidFilmer]

Are you a Third-Order (secular) Carmelite (OCS or OCDS), either fully professed or under temporary (novitiate) promise?

If so, you should direct this question to your Master/Mistress of Formation, or to your chapter’s spiritual adviser. Secular Carmelite Constitutions vary, so the answer might not always be the same.

If you are not a Carmelite (even a secular Carmelite), then you are not bound by any temporary or permanent promise (Religious take vows, seculars take promises - the difference is unknown to me).

So you might be bound by your own personal commitment, but you do not need a priest to absolve you from such a commitment. You may absolve yourself. You may also grant yourself dispensations to fulfill your promise in different terms (such as “past midnight”).

FWIW, your question really has little to do with the Brown Scapular.

 

[cornbread_r2]

This seems to be a fairly authoritative article on the brown scapular.

 

[Dorothy]

This seems to be a fairly authoritative article on the brown scapular.

Yes! That catechesis was prepared by both branches of the Carmelite Order, and presents new information.

 

[DavidFilmer]

Yes! That catechesis was prepared by both branches of the Carmelite Order, and presents new information.

It’s not particularly “new.” It was issued in 2000. And, yet, it does nothing to address the question of the OP. This document allows a single (very short) paragraph regarding ordinary laypeople who wear the Brown Scapular:

If a person wears the scapular, but has no formal association to the Order, does that person still gain the benefits associated with the scapular?
A person who wears the scapular and practices the spirituality of the Carmelite Order has an affiliation, loose as it may be, to the Carmelite family and so shares in the graces traditionally associated with the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. However, simply to wear the scapular without accepting the responsibilities attached to it would be to reduce this precious sacramental to the status of a charm or good-luck piece.

I stand by my answer. A person who chooses to undertake a devotion which is optional and does not involve sacred promises or vows is not under any ecclesiastical obligation. Such person may grant himself a “dispensation” or absolve himself of this “undertaking” (since his obligation is only to himself), and he does not need to seek the “permission” of any priest to do so.

But, of course, a person who wears the Scapular but grants himself a “dispensation” from “accepting the responsibilities attached to it” would gain nothing by simply wearing it.

 

[Brooklyn]

I stand by my answer. A person who chooses to undertake a devotion which is optional and does not involve sacred promises or vows is not under any ecclesiastical obligation. Such person may grant himself a “dispensation” or absolve himself of this “undertaking” (since his obligation is only to himself), and he does not need to seek the “permission” of any priest to do so.

But, of course, a person who wears the Scapular but grants himself a “dispensation” from “accepting the responsibilities attached to it” would gain nothing by simply wearing it.

Absolutely right. I joined the Confraternity of the Rosary, and in the promises it says we are not obligated to say the Rosary under threat of sin. I think making such a vow and then not following through can be spiritually harmful because you are not living up to your promises, but it is most definitely not, of and by itself, sinful, and no permission of any kind is needed.

 

[TuAutem]

As the US document from 2000 linked to above indicates, the current status of the Scapular Confraternity is a bit messy (as in disorganised), especially, apparently, in North America. Even that document, though, does include being invested in the scapular on its list of gradations, and refers to the 1996 document approved by the Holy See as the latest version of the rules. I am not aware of any subsequent rules since then.

Therefore, you do not need permission to substitute the rosary or another part of the office for the Little Office to share in the benefits of the confraternity, since it explicitly lists these “or other equivalent prayers” as appropriate. (Though I suppose if you had a question about whether some other particular daily devotion should qualify as “another equivalent prayer” that might be something to check with a Carmelite or a priest with.)

Your other question I would rephrase as “what happens if I don’t do the prayers?” In that I agree with the other posters that, like the Rosary Confraternity (which I’m also a member of), you commit no sin, but you do lose the benefits, until such time as you take up the prayer obligation again.

But even then, many of the benefits of wearing the scapular accrue to those who practice its spirituality whether or not they are invested (though I would submit that daily prayer is a pretty fundamental part of practising Carmelite spirituality!).

The biggest objective advantage that being invested offers, based on my reading of these two documents, is the eight plenary indulgences that are available to those invested in the confraternity (under the usual conditions). [NB by ‘objective’ I mean having official status in the Church–I’m not presuming to interpret private revelations relating to the scapular, and still less to foist my interpretation on others.]

(Subjectively, I find that being invested also offers encouragement to the wearer to perservere, and gives a form and structure in which one can live one’s spirituality, while still not being as big of a commitment as joining a third order.)

 

[Marian_Devotee]

I think you’re interlacing the Confraternity and the Sabbatine Privilege. With the permission of a priest, you can substitute the Little Office with the Rosary (to obtain the privilege). You must also wear the scapular and observe chastity according to your state in life.

 

[Filioque]

The indult to tranfer the obligation of the Little Office to the daily Rosary can be obtained from one’s confessor or Spiritual Director. If you do not have a Spiritual Director then mention it next time you go to confession and he can dispense you from the Little Office and commute it to the daily Rosary.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I think you’re interlacing the Confraternity and the Sabbatine Privilege.

OH NO!!! Please tell me that the OP is not referring to the (completely bogus and officially discredited) Sabbatine Privilege.

It is that silly and superstitious “promise” on the reverse of many secular Brown Scapulars, and a source of great embarrassment to the Order. The Carmelite Order has formally disavowed this so-called promise, and calls for scapulars to not include this nonsense. Proper Scapulars for the laity are to be unadorned brown cloth on the reverse.

There is no such thing as the Sabbatine Privilege, so you don’t need anybody’s permission to deviate from it. It doesn’t exist.

 

[Dorothy]

OH NO!!! Please tell me that the OP is not referring to the (completely bogus and officially discredited) Sabbatine Privilege.

It is that silly and superstitious “promise” on the reverse of many secular Brown Scapulars, and a source of great embarrassment to the Order. The Carmelite Order has formally disavowed this so-called promise, and calls for scapulars to not include this nonsense. Proper Scapulars for the laity are to be unadorned brown cloth on the reverse.

There is no such thing as the Sabbatine Privilege, so you don’t need anybody’s permission to deviate from it. It doesn’t exist.

I suppose this will take a while to trickle down to all those who make brown scapulars.

That is why I like to present the catechesis on the scapular to those who ask many questions about it.

 

[Aeden]

OH NO!!! Please tell me that the OP is not referring to the (completely bogus and officially discredited) Sabbatine Privilege.

It is that silly and superstitious “promise” on the reverse of many secular Brown Scapulars, and a source of great embarrassment to the Order. The Carmelite Order has formally disavowed this so-called promise, and calls for scapulars to not include this nonsense. Proper Scapulars for the laity are to be unadorned brown cloth on the reverse.

There is no such thing as the Sabbatine Privilege, so you don’t need anybody’s permission to deviate from it. It doesn’t exist.

Ok. Thanks for telling me. So are you supposed to pray the rosary or little office? Or are you just required to wear the scapular, live chastely and go to mass?