Fellow worker calls scapular a spell

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Hope I’m posting this on the correct forum…
I was stunned yesterday by a very sweet and thoughtful girl I work with. I was talking to her about my husband, the agnostic, and how I’d placed a green scapular under his side of our mattress and pray for his belief. She answered, “Are you attempting to cast a spell on him?” After recovering my senses, I answered, “no, though I see how you might think that way.”
This girl was raised a mormon but fell away from her church years ago. She says she has no interest in religion at all but is dating a Catholic at the moment. (from what she’s told me, he doesn’t practice his faith) We have a very good relationship and I would like to take the opportunity to explain something about my faith without driving her away.
Anyone have a suggestion how I might go back to the scapular subject with a short and meaningful answer? I think I shouldn’t have mentioned it because it’s a difficult subject for unbelievers. I now wish I’d brought up something more main stream but what I said was in the context of our conversation of the moment.
 
You could say that you are using the scapular to break the spell of disbelief 😉

Yours in the Spirit

Pious 😃
 
I usually tell people that Catholics pray to Saints for intercession, like help from a friend and than Also use it as an opportunity to drive home the point. That Catholics do not Worship saints but I think there are some Catholics that do.
 
Thank you for your answers and to johnq for the website.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know what the scapular was but that I was shocked by her remark/question. I like your answer pious and if the opportunity arises at work soon, I will use it. 🙂
 
It is not surprising to me at all that it sounds like a spell to many people. The promise of the Green Scapular is that conversions can be obtained by placing the scapular in a person’s vicinity and praying “Immaculate heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death” every day. Without a proper understanding, this would sound like a spell (placing a charm near someone and repeating an incantation) to anyone. The difference here is that the conversion is wrought through faith. It is not the scapular which brings about the conversion, nor the one praying, nor even Mary, but the Holy Spirit.

The promises of the Scapulars (specifically brown and green) have to be understood in the light of prayer and grace. We know through the Incarnation that God has deemed physical matter a proper way of conveying His grace. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to see both the Scapular itself, and the act of placing the Scapular in the vicinity of someone as potential conduits of that grace.

Similarly, the Bible gives us many examples of repeated prayer being efficacious. Christ taught the parable of the man who would not leave his neighbor alone until he gave him some bread. He also taught the Our Father, which implores, “give us this day our daily bread” (implying daily prayer). Christ prayed the same prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane 3 times in a row.

So nothing about the Scapular is magic, but based in Scripture. Now…how does God choose to use these things to bring about a conversion? That’s up to Him. It could be that the presence of the Scapular near someone every day brings about the thought of God more often, and they begin to take Him more seriously. It may be that the knowledge that a person has placed a Scapular for someone reminds them to pray for them more than they would have otherwise. It may be that the presence of a blessed object keeps Satan and his angels from having as much influence on the person, and therefore leaves them more open to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

The point is, in the Green Scapular we have a physical aid and reminder for prayer to help someone find the truth of God. Properly understood, there is nothing magical about it and, more importantly, it is very Christian.
 
Well Said Doctor! I tossed a medal into someone’s room once, not because it’s a charm but, as I saw it then, as a mark of my commitment to pray for that person’s conversion. And I keep a Rosary under my pillow at night. I think St. Padre Pio did that too. Always near!

By the way watch out with that kensmen.com site. They openly scorn the Pauline rite of mass and tender schismatic arguments; these they surround with useful information and good site design, sort of like arsenic in pudding.
 
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