The brown scapular has an option for abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays. What makes these two days of the week so special? Why not Fridays and Sundays or Thursdays and Fridays?
Wednesday is the day during Holy Week on which the Church commemorates the tragedy of Judas’s betrayal of Christ. That Wednesday in Holy Week is popularly called Spy Wednesday. Saturday is the day of the week specially dedicated by the Church to the Blessed Mother, and the brown scapular is a sacramental believed to be given to the Church by Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Fridays are also considered an appropriate day to abstain in commemoration of and penance for Christ’s crucifixion.
Keep in mind that much of the popular literature on the brown scapular is not authorized by the Carmelite order and may not be fully in agreement with official Carmelite teaching on this sacramental. For an authoritative source of information on the brown scapular, please see the resource linked below.
DISCLAIMER: Catholic Answers has turned over the archive to Catholic-Questions.org and no longer owns, manages, or moderates the forums. For additional apologetics resources please visit www.catholic.com.
