Scapular question?

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ChildofGod2091

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Hi! I don’t really know if this is in the right spot, so sorry if I didn’t put this in the right place! 😃

Anyways, my question has to deal with the Brown Scapular investiture. I’ve seen that only Carmelite priests should do this, that any priest can do as long as they are authorized, and I’ve also seen that any priest can do it. I have a pamphlet that says it was “Prepared under the direction of North American Provincials of the Carmelite Orders” so I’m inclined to believe what they say which is “Priest and deacons have the faculties for blessing Scapulars; other authorized persons may enroll the faithful.” but I’m not exactly sure what that means. What makes one authorized?

Also when/where should investiture be done?

Haha I’m just really confused so if anyone could clear this up for me this would be lovely 🙂
 
Your parish priest can invest you. Simply take the scapular and the prayers that come with it to your church and ask him.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Your parish priest can invest you. Simply take the scapular and the prayers that come with it to your church and ask him.
Click to expand...
From what source did you obtain this? I’ve heard all sorts of who is and who isn’t able to invest this scapular. So do you have something I can refer to?
thanks.
 
*Brown Scapular
Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Carmelites)
A.D. 1251

“The Brown Scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel,” associated with the Carmelite Order, is the most well-known. In A.D. 16 July 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock in Cambridge, England after he prayed for help for his Order. She appeared to him with the scapular and said, “Take, beloved son this scapular of thy order as a badge of my confraternity and for thee and all Carmelites a special sign of grace; whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire. It is the sign of salvation, a safeguard in dangers, a pledge of peace and of the covenant.”

Whether this happened exactly in this way or not (St. Simon’s original descriptions of the vision are not extant and the wording may not be exact), the Scapular was given to St. Simon Stock, and the devotion spread and was well-known by the 16th c. What can be safely believed because of papal decree is the promise known as the “Sabbatine Privilege.” The Sabbatine Privilege is the promise that Our Lady will intercede and pray for those in Purgatory who, in earthly life:
Code: 
* wore the Scapular in good faith;
* were chaste according to their state in life;
* daily recited the Divine Office or, with the permission of one's Confessor, the Little Office of Our Lady [a shorter form of the Divine Office in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, used by certain religious orders and laity. It is similar to the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Roman Breviary] or the Rosary; and
* departed earthly life in charity.
You can be enrolled in the Confraternity of our Lady of Mount Carmel by any priest. Just obtain a scapular, take it to him to have it blessed, and express your desire for enrollment.

Warning: Some falsely believe that wearing the Brown Scapular offers some sort of guarantee of salvation because of the legendary words attributed to Our Lady. This is against Church teaching, is superstitious and a grave error. Sacramentals are not magical ways to manipulate God; they are Church-instituted rituals/objects that remind us of what we are supposed to be doing/thinking of, that depend on the faith, hope and love of the user, and which help prepare us to receive God’s saving grace. One must do more than “wear the scapular”; one must wear it worthily.

You can get well-made, wool, traditionally-designed Brown Scapulars from this traditional Carmelite Order of nuns. I don’t know the cost:
Code: 
Rev. Mother Superior
Carmel of the Holy Trinity
S. 4027 Wilbur Road
Spokane, WA 99206 *
 
carmelitanacollection.com/catechesis.php states:

“Who may invest people with the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel?
According to the Rite for the Blessing and Enrollment in the Scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, approved by the Holy See in 1996, any priest or deacon has the faculties for blessing the scapular. A person given authority to act in the name of the order may receive people into the confraternity of the scapular. The official ritual provided by the Holy See makes no provision for someone other than a priest or deacon to bless the scapular.”

This says that a person given authority to act in the name of the order may receive people into the conferternity. But it dosen’t say any priest or deacon. They have faculties for blessing the scapular. So who are these persons having this authority?

Just a question.
 
@fred: I couldn’t tell you all the countless answers to this question I’ve seen everywhere, but the actual quote I gave came from this little book, it’s not even 50 pages, but it’s a brief Catechesis and Ritual of the brown Scapular. I found it in the Carmelite studies section of a Catholic store nearby. For such a small book it’s pretty informative actually. I mean, it has a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, so there isn’t doctrinal or moral error, so I take that as this book isn’t telling me lies haha 😛

So basically any priest can do the investiture, but an authorized person would have to enroll me? It’s there a difference then between the enrollment and the investiture or are the same thing? And how would I find such a person? Or would the priest do that himself? That’s what I’m asking I guess. I mean…it doesn’t say who this person may be or where you can find them our how authority would be given…
 
Child of God,

I’m not sure how i should read your response. Are you saying that you don’t know either? Or you do know?

To me Blessing a medal is not the same as the act of investiture.

I’ve never seen a statisfactory answer as to who can do the investiture.

In all respect to the sister who gave a nice article on the brown scapular, unfortunately she does not have the poke for this. What I would like is to see some documentation from the Papal City which I haven,t as yet seen. I should think it would be a very clear and simple statement about who may invest the brown scapular.

What do you think?
 
fred_conty said:
Child of God,

I’m not sure how i should read your response. Are you saying that you don’t know either? Or you do know?

To me Blessing a medal is not the same as the act of investiture.

I’ve never seen a statisfactory answer as to who can do the investiture.

In all respect to the sister who gave a nice article on the brown scapular, unfortunately she does not have the poke for this. What I would like is to see some documentation from the Papal City which I haven,t as yet seen. I should think it would be a very clear and simple statement about who may invest the brown scapular.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
First off I Love you fred. God Bless You!

What has the Brown Scapular done for me? 1 year ago I was away from the church for 40 years. The Holy Spirit came to me just before Ash Wednesday. The Holy Spirit led me to confession. 2 very long confessions. Then the Holy Spirit told me my Contrition was lacking. Oh My! Satan didn’t like it one bit! I was being messed BIG TIME! I was led to the Holy Rosary. Started praying the Rosary daily. I was still having to go to confession weekly. Satan kept my weakness on going. I found out about the Green Scapular. Had it blessed. That helped. Gave me peace. Then I was led to the Brown Scapular. Got one. Had it blessed. That helped some more. But Satan was still there. Here I was sleeping over a Green Scapular, wearing a Brown Scapular, praying and carrying Holy Rosary always. I just couldn’t shake Satan, and my bad habits. Out of no where I was made aware that I needed to be invested to the Brown Scapular! What! My Priest didn’t know this! In my study I was led to that any priest praying the rites of investment to the Brown Scapular could invest me. And I would have to ask permission to substitute the Rosary for the Little Office. So I did. Once that day happened I’ve had no problems with Satan. I have general confessions. I sleep all night. I have praying dreams. I wake up praying. I pray all day long. I’m working out my salvation with Mary at my side. One thing for sure is Satan is not ruling my life. I remember where at Fatima, Mary came to Sister Lucy holding a Rosary and Brown Scapulars as if offering them to the children. I don’t think it matters to Mary as long as we pray the Rosary, and wear a Brown Scapular.

Peace Be With You!
 
Okay, I flipped through this little book I have again and came across something that I think clears this up? First I need to say I’m sorry. I’ve gotten some migraines the past couple days so I might not be making much sense, but yes, that’s the question I’ve been asking the whole time 🙂

Anyways, I must have missed this somehow before, but this appears to clear things up. It says:
“5.) As a result of the history and evolution of devotion to Mary through the scapular, there are today several categories of devotees according to the degree of identification with an affiliation to the family of Carmel. They may be listed as follows:
a.) The religious men and women
b.) The secular Order (also called Third Order)
c.) Those who belong to the Confraternity of the Scapular
d.) All those who receive the scapular and live according to it’s spirituality in various degrees of association with the order
e.) Those who receive the scapular and live according to it’s spirituality, but have no formal association with the order,
f.) All who are committed to put into practice the Marian characteristic of Carmelite spirituality wholly and fervently , but in forms which correspond to the nature of the bond that ties them to the family of Mary.”

So basically what this is saying is that being enrolled in the Confraternity of the Scapular is different that just being invested with the scapular, am I correct? So to be enrolled in the Confraternity you would need someone to act in the name of the order, but the actual investiture can be done by any priest or deacon without any authorization of the Order, is that correct?

Sorry if I’m not making sense…
 
Any priest can do the enrollment/investiture (they are the same thing).

All this confusion about “other authorized persons” stems from the fact that, in the period after Vatican II, there were a number of lay people that were authorized to enroll people in the scapular as well. This was in addition to the clergy, who were all already authorized in virtue of their office.

In practice this didn’t work out so well, there were a lot of abuses, and no lay people have been authorized to do it for decades now. So Mrs Sally’s advice to take the scapular and the investiture prayers to your parish priest is spot on.

(Although if there are Carmelite priests in your area, it’s probably worth it to make an appointment with one of them. You only get enrolled once, so why not make the occasion more special by doing it through the order whose scapular it is?)
 
Haha I would love to if there were any Carmelites near by! However I’m not entirely sure that they are, maybe I will look around a little harder 😛 That’s why it was so important to find out if I did need a Carmelite priest :-/
 
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