Is the wearing of medals or scapulars superstitious?

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I wear the Miraculous Medal, the Saint Benedict Medal, and the Brown Scapular.
One of my Protestant friends told me that is superstitious and a sin, believing it can be used as a “charm” and actually is an act almost as vile as going to a medium or using tarot cards or a Ouija board.

Is this true in any way? It kind of has me confused as I couldn’t possibly believe the Church would promote wearing something such as a charm.
 
Sacramentals don’t have any special power in and of themselves. If you believe they do, the way some people wear the same jersey without washing it, that’s superstitious. A not great analogy is a sacramental is like a car. Faith is the gas for the car. I also wear both the MM and St. Benedict medal.

Divination and witchcraft can overlap with superstition but not in every case.
 
Does your friend also critical of those who wear lockets? Or mother’s rings? Or anything sentimental? I have to wonder about people who want people to be close to God but don’t want them to have any outward sign of doing so. Go figure.
 
That’s always struck me as odd as well. I married into a pretty anti-Catholic family and just a Crucifix sends them over the edge. But their homes are full of pictures of family, knick knacks from trips, even little fridge magnets with Scripture verses on them. Or they idolize Billy Graham or Mike Pence but heaven forbid I have a figurine of St. Mother Teresa or a Holy Card of JPII. Makes no sense.
 
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Brittany said:
No. Your Protestant friend is misunderstanding our use of such things.
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Brittany is being both charitable and possibly correct in her statement. I wear a gold crucifix on a gold chain. It is a constant reminder of the focus of what and why I believe. A reminder, much like the picture your protestant friend carries in his wallet of his wife, kids, or girlfriend. A reminder, not a superstition.

I think our use of such sacramentals goes a bit deeper though. It seems to me that protestants believe that Jesus was a historical figure and lives in faraway heaven and one day they will/may see Him again. But there is no direct connection outside of prayer/worship now. I think we Catholics believe that Christ and all the faithful departed live in the present; our sacraments certainly speak to that idea. Christ and His faithful-Mary his mother and the saints- live with us in the church,now… today. They are not historical figures living in some faraway land, but are real and present to us here and now. Not sure if this is linguistically correct, but the Church Faithful meets the Church militant and the Church suffering in this present moment. Our sacramentals are a testament to that. It is one thing that identifies us as Catholic as we profess in the Creed said at every Mass.
My two cents.
 
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Indeed. If it’s wrong there are a lot of people wearing gold crosses on chains that are not Catholics.
And have Scripture passages stenciled on their walls at home, and have license plate frames that say Honk if you love Jesus, etc etc etc o

it’s just an attack on Catholics.
Nothing more.
 
The Protestant doesn’t understand that it’s not the medal itself or the scapular itself that’s protecting us. Those are just symbols of our love for Mary and her love and protection for us. It’s like I wear a wedding ring to show I’m married to my husband. I usually wear it every day because that’s what married people do, but if I happen to forget to wear it, or I need to take it off to do something that I can’t wear a ring for (like electrical work or putting my hands in lots of dirt) I’m still married to my husband. It’s not the ring working some magic that makes us married.

With scapulars and medals, it’s not like “oh noes I forgot to put my scapular back on after a shower, I’m suddenly not protected.” It’s not the thing itself bringing the grace. One time I was going out of town and I accidentally forgot to put on my medal and scapular and didn’t get back to my house where they were for a month. I don’t think Mary forgot about me during that time.
 
Yes. I ironically have called out some I’m regards to even wedding rings. Protestants blast Catholics for wearing these things and call it pagan, yet all of them have no problem wearing a wedding ring whose origin actually comes from Ancient Egypt and believing the Ring finger had a vein which connected right to the heart.
 
I wear a crucifix as well. It seems the crucifix doesn’t bother her; it’s the Brown Scapular, and the St. Benedict Medal, and Miraculous Medal she seemed to really think was outrageous. Actually she laughed at the Scapular saying " what so no matter what you do if you die wearing that you go to heaven?"
 
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I wear a St. Monica and St. Augustine medal to remind me to pray for my son and daughter. St. Monica prayed daily for her son and he eventually came to Christ.
 
You have to educate people that the PRAYERS associated with the devotion is what gets you to heaven not the piece of cloth ALONE. People will always pick apart that which they don’t understand.
 
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Like anything people can make it superstitious, even if it isn’t inherently. When my mom was in a rehab center after surgery a couple of the aids complained to me about Catholics and their neckware. old ladies would get hysterical if their scapulars were removed for showers because if they fell and died without it on they might not go to heaven. These pious ladies were being superstitious.
 
jas84173 said:
I wear the Miraculous Medal, the Saint Benedict Medal, and the Brown Scapular.
One of my Protestant friends told me that is superstitious Is this true in any way?
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It depends on why you wear them and your attitude.

Why do you wear them?
And why so many?
 
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Anything must be done with faith as its foundation. Medals, scapulars, any and all prayers must have faith as their foundation. Ask that friend how “inviting Jesus into your heart” and claiming to already be saved is not superstitious, since neither is in scripture.

Your friend is victim of very shallow and man-made theology. Sacramentals and relics are 100% biblical. Ask that friend where they are in the bible - make them look them up! But, warn them that they will have to read outside of Romans to find it… :roll_eyes:
 
Blue_Horizon said:
It depends on why you wear them and your attitude.

Why do you wear them?

And why so many?
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Wearing these three medals is not an excessive or unusual number. Many Catholics who are devoted to Mary wear the Miraculous Medal and the Scapular both. They are each associated with a specific, different Marian devotion. The St. Benedict Medal is often provided with a Scapular, attached to it (although technically you’re not really supposed to attach medals to a scapular, but that is how they are sold, including in many Catholic gift shops).
 
They can be. If you freak out if you forget to put on your brown scapular because you think you’re risking your salvation, then yes, it’s superstitious. There are lots of supersitutious practices around them, and merely saying “Well its power is rooted in your faith” (like a crucifix requiring faith to work against a vampire), you’re totally confused in what a charm is.

Afterall, a charm and a sacramental are similar in that they have some sort of supernatural/spiritual power. If we treat them as a key to salvation, as an actual sacrament rather than something “sacramentAL”, then we fall into superstitution. So while I might worry about when the last time I went to confession was or making sure I receive the Eucharist and have my children baptized, the sacraments are nice but there’s nothing wrong with not wearing it or forgetting it. It’s a blessed option and yes might be a good thing to hold onto, to take comfort in, and even to wear if you’re feeling particularly under spiritual attack. But don’t act like your salvation is risked if you don’t wear it.
 
I wasn’t asking for a theoretic answer from other viewers.
Rather a concrete answer from the OP.
 
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i haven’t taken my brown scapular or miracoulus medal off for ; i don’t know, thirty years

the scapular would get wet when i go in the shower; so there’s that
 
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