Island Oak:
Again, without intending to offend, I perceive a clear distinction between devotion to the BVM or transubstantiation–and use of a scapular. Mary is not prayed to as the source of power, she is an animate intercessor to God on our behalf. With transubst. the focus is on the ‘real presence’ Christ in the eucharist over the mere symbolic value of the wafer to recall his sacrifice. With the scapular–it seems to me as if people come to view these inanimate objects as a necessary part or source of the power to convert or protect. Am I missing something?
UM! Missing or adding? No Catholic I know of thinks any of the above as reguards Our Lady.
Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences, of January 1, 1967, made some statements which have relevance to all devotional and pious practices of Catholics, such as the scapular and the Rosary:
To gain indulgences the work prescribed must be done. But that is not all. The faithful must have the dispositions that are necessary. These are that they must love God, hate sin, trust in Christ’s merits, and believe firmly in the great help they obtain from the Communion of Saints. (ch. 4, sec. 10).
Vatican II stressed active participation in the liturgy:
In order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects it is necessary that the faithful come to it with PROPER DISPOSITIONS, that their minds be attuned to their voices, and that they cooperate with heavenly grace lest they RECEIVE IT IN VAIN. Pastors of souls must, therefore, realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the laws governing valid and lawful celebration. It is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part FULLY AWARE of what they are doing, ACTIVELY ENGAGED in the rite and enriched by it…
Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy…In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy the full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered above all else, for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit. Therefore, in all their apostolic activity, pastors of souls should energetically set about achieving it through the requisite pedagogy.
{Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Dec. 4, 1963, ch. 1, I, sec. 11 and II, sec. 14;