When we are truly Carmelite family members we commit ourselves to live in Holiness

 

“Receive this blessed scapular and ask the Blessed Virgin that for her merits, you wear it without any stain of sin and that she protect you from all evil and lead you to eternal life.” 

 

The Brown Scapular is recognized by the Church as a sacramental — that is, a sign that helps us to live a holy life and to increase our devotion.

St. Claude de la Colombière said: “You ask, what if I would want to die with my sins? I answer you, then you will die in sin, but you will not die with your scapular.”

 

“No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: Either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary.” -Bishop Hugh Boyle

 

“In what does true devotion to Mary Most Holy consist?” – Saint Anthony Mary Claret answers–: “In abstaining from all sin, imitating his virtues, giving him some gifts, frequenting the Holy Sacraments, and doing well, with pleasure and perseverance, the prayers and other things of his service”

 “True devotion to Our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin” 

“True devotion to Our Lady is constant. It makes it courageous in opposing the world in its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its wearinesses and passions, and the Devil in his temptations”

  

Superior General of the Order, Father Kilian Lynch: Let us not conclude, however, that the Scapular is endowed with some kind of supernatural power, which will save us, no matter what we do, or how much we sin. We might apply here what St. Alphonsus says about devotion to Mary in general: “When we declare that it is impossible for a servant of Mary to be lost, we do not mean those who, by their devotion to Mary, think themselves warranted to sin freely. We state that these reckless people, because of their presumption, deserve to be treated with rigor and not with kindness. We speak here of the servants of Mary who, to the fidelity with which they honor and invoke her, join the desire to amend their lives. I hold it morally impossible that these be lost.”

                                     

 St. Pius X: What this most prudent Virgin said to the servants at the marriage feast of Cana she addresses also to us: "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye" (John ii., 5). Now here is the word of Jesus Christ: "If you would enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. xix., 17). Let them each one fully convince himself of this, that if his piety towards the Blessed Virgin does not hinder him from sinning, or does not move his will to amend an evil life, it is a piety deceptive and Iying, wanting as it is in proper effect and its natural fruit.

AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM

Encyclical Of Pope Pius X On The Immaculate Conception 

True devotion to the Virgin Mary consists in abstaining from all sin.

Scripture teaches us that God's Will is for us to be sanctified and to turn away from all sexual immorality. 

1 Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication.

Turn away from sin! It is the distinguishing characteristic of every genuine child of God. No one who sincerely invokes the name of God can continue to sin. (Cf. 2 Timothy 2:19) 

Romans 12:1

The New Life in Christ

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 

 

Galatians 5:24

And they that are Christ's, have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences.

 

St. Alphonsus Liguori, a doctor of the Church, said: “Just as men are proud that others wear their uniform, so Our Lady, Mother Mary, is pleased when her servants wear their scapular as proof that they have dedicated themselves to her service, and they are members of the family of the Mother of God.”

 

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

O Mary, Queen and Mother of Carmel, I come today to consecrate myself to you, for my whole life is but a small return for the many graces and blessings that have come from God to me through your hands. Since you look with special kindness on those who wear your Scapular, I implore you to strengthen my weakness with your power, to enlighten the darkness of my mind with your wisdom, and to increase in me Faith, Hope and Charity that I may repay each day my debt of humble homage to you.

May your Scapular bring me your special protection in my daily struggle to be faithful to your Divine Son and to you. May it separate me from all that is sinful in life and remind me constantly of my duty to imitate your virtues. From now on, I shall strive to live in God's Presence, and offer all to Jesus through you. Dearest Mother, support me by your never-failing love and lead me to paradise through the merits of Christ and your own intercession. Amen. 

Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the Raccolta

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  O blessed Virgin, full of grace, Queen of all Saints, how sweet it is for me to venerate thee under the title of our Lady of Mount Carmel. It takes me back to the days of the prophet Elias, when thou wast prefigured on Mount Carmel under the form of the little cloud, from which, as it increased, there fell a kindly rain, symbolic of the sanctifying graces that come to us from thee. Even from the days of the Apostles, thou hast been honored under this mystic title; and today I am filled with joy at the thought that we are united with those first clients of thine, and in union with them we salute thee, saying: O beauty of Carmel, glory of Libanus, thou purest of lilies, mystic rose in the flowering garden of the Church. Meanwhile, O Virgin of virgins, be mindful of me in my misery, and show thyself my Mother. Shed upon me ever more and more the living light of that faith which made thee blessed; inflame me with that Heavenly love wherewith thou didst love thy dear Son, Jesus Christ. I am filled with miseries both spiritual and temporal. I am straitened by many sorrows in body and soul, and I take refuge, like a child, in the shadow of thy motherly protection. Do thou, Mother of God, who hast such power and might, obtain for me from blessed Jesus, the Heavenly gifts of humility, chastity, and meekness, which were the fairest ornaments of thine Immaculate soul. Do thou grant me to be strong in the midst of the temptations and bitterness, which so often overwhelm my spirit. And when the days of my earthly pilgrimage are accomplished according to God's holy will, grant that my soul may obtain the glory of Paradise, through the merits of Christ and thine intercession. Amen.

“Zelo zelatus sum pro Domino, Deo exercituum”

O Queen, who art the beauty of Carmel, pray for us.

Regina decor Carmeli, ora pro nobis.

We Fly to Thy Patronage
Sub tuum praesidium

We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and Blessed Virgin.