Dear friend
A person can wear a Scapular all their life, lead a terrible life wearing one and not attain heaven.
The point of prayer and devotions such as the Scapular are to change us internally, that is why the Holy Mass, the Eucharist is the highest prayer of the Church as by our Lord’s Eucharist we are transformed by it’s receipt and the promise of the Eucharist of our salvation and to transform us so that we are increasingly more Christ-like.
The Scapular is an outward symbol of the devotion in our hearts and by wearing this outward symbol, the graces therein of that symbol assure us of salvation if we are receptive to them and strive by that grace to become evermore Christ-like.
Repetative prayer such as Hail Mary’s, Our Father’s, the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine mercy are all Christ centered and are to be prayed meditatively, they are not empty words of repetition as is no prayer to be said without the heart, mind and soul fully engaged with God. In the repeating of the words, if they are prayed with the heart, mind and soul, God by His good grace and the power of the Holy Spirit brings that soul ever closer to Himself and grants graces, favours and mercies to souls by this close communion with Him in deep and effective prayer.
The most affective prayer is the prayer where the soul simply is silent with the Lord. We cannot educate the Lord of anything in this world, the universe or the next world, there is nothing we can say to Him that He does not already know. When we talk to God about the things we desire to talk to Him about, it is really the love He is looking at in our hearts, the love by which we petition and the love by which we talk to Him, the LOVE and KINDNESS we express by our prayers of petition, praise, etc etc.
Imagine a child running to their parent and telling them all about colours they have painted on a piece of paper and telling the parent what the colours are, their names and their favourite colours. The parent listens with great interest and LOVE, but the parent already knows about all of the colours, the child doesn’t tell the parent anything that they do not already know, but it is the LOVE in that interaction. The child finally asks the parent that they would like to have some new colours bought for them, the parent knowing that it will be beneficial for the child to know about more colours and use them will get that gift when they are able to go and get it for them. Imagine firstly that the child does not ask for those colours with love in their hearts, imagine if the child already has enough colours, imagine if the child will not share those colours with other children etc etc, the parent may make that child wait, or the parent may never give the child more colours. On the other hand the parent may grant the child who asked with great love and devotion more colours seeing the zest in the child to learn to paint and to share any gifts with others. The parent may in that conversation about the colours teach the child something further about colours.
So it is with God, it is all about what is in the heart and our intent, the words of a prayer when said prayerfully with great LOVE is the crux of the prayer, this is what God looks to. This is why it is better to say one decade of the Rosary well, than to say an entire Rosary with less LOVE and less devotion.
This is also why life is a prayer if we live in LOVE with God daily and reaffirm that daily. This is also why suffering is a prayer, to suffer raising it to God with LOVE in our hearts is a prayer as well as salvific in Christ Jesus.
All words, all actions, all thoughts are prayer with LOVE in the heart for God and for each other.
This is also why to pray for someone is the greatest work of mercy, it is great LOVE to pray for another, offer Mass for another, say a Rosary for another etc etc, it is the LOVE in the heart that inspired by the Holy Spirit we raise prayers to God for our brothers and sisters.
God Bless you and much love and peace to you
Teresa
