Brown Scapular and religious profession

[PaulDT]

Greetings, I am wondering what happens when someone who has been enrolled in the Brown Scapular Confraternity pronounces monastic vows outside of the Carmelite Order, and receives the habit of another order. Is that person expected to keep the Brown Scapular and the devotions attached to it, or to give it up with the rest of their previous life?

 

[poche]

Ihave known many professed religious who wear the brown scapular.

 

[FrancisFan43]

You can still wear a brown scapular even if you were to become let’s say a Trappist or a Dominican. You would just wear the the smaller Brown scapular that the laity would wear underneath your monastic habit.

 

[rom]

That is a really good question. I am a lay Dominican and, when I was received into the Order, I was given a small, white, rectangular scapular that I was supposed to wear inside my exterior clothing. I asked myself, but nobody else, what I was going to do with my brown scapular, because up until that time I had been wearing the brown scapular. Since the brown scapular was a sign of my dedication to the Virgin Mary, and the Dominican Order also has a very strong devotion to Mary (we are required to say the rosary every day), I decided that I will just wear the white scapular of the Order instead of wearing two scapulars. I figured that by giving me the white scapular of the Order, the Blessed Virgin Mary is simply giving me a scapular “upgrade,” so that wearing the white scapular in lieu of the brown scapular does not mean losing her protection, but actually brings me closer to her, inasmuch as it elevates me to a higher level of dedication to her and to God. Well, that was just me. I didn’t ask anyone, and no one told me to do it. So, I discontinued wearing the brown scapular without any scruples. For, I did not discontinue it out of contempt, but out of my conviction that the white scapular is an “upgrade” of my brown scapular.

 

[FrancisFan43]

Additionally, if one really wanted to, you could wear the five fold scapular. Which has the brown, blue, white, black, and red scapulars attached to it with all the promises of the various scapulars attached to it.

That way, even if one had scruples, the wearer can have the confidence they are getting Our Lady’s protection.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

It’s probably dependent upon the order and/or superior to an extent. Some orders have stronger devotions to a particular piety than others and prefer not to incorporate extras; some leave it to the discernment of the individual.

 

[WeaponizedAutism]

pick up the five fold scapular. no need to give up the brown scapular.

 

[PaulDT]

But when you live under a strict monastic rule, don’t the requirements of wearing a scapular interfere with the requirements of the community? And aren’t you supposed to give it up as a personal belonging (for example I suspect that if I enter a benedictine monastery, I will have to give up my nice rosary and use the same rosary as the other brothers)?

I was mostly wondering if the consecration to the brown scapular was an impediment to a later consecration of monastic vows - apparently not.

 

[rom]

I was mostly wondering if the consecration to the brown scapular was an impediment to a later consecration of monastic vows - apparently not.

Definitely not. I see the consecration to the brown scapular as a “stepping stone” rather than an impediment toward the more solemn consecration of the monastic vows. In fact, it is quite possible that, without you being aware of it, your devotion to the brown scapular is what led you to the monastic life. I say one should not have scruples about it.