The great Jesuit Cardinal and Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., teacher and spiritual director of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, defended the use of Our Lady's Scapular:
"Anyone dying in Mary's family will receive from her at the hour of death either the grace of perseverance in the state of grace or the grace of final contrition."
St. Dominic : 'To my Order, the Blessed Virgin will entrust a devotion to be known as the rosary and to your Order, Angelus, she will entrust a devotion to be known as the scapular. One day, through the rosary and the scapular, she will save the world.'
Pope St. Pius X was a Carmelite Tertiary who faithfully wore the Scapular. When missionaries from tropical countries asked Pope St. Pius X for a special favor - to have the cloth scapular replaced by a medal. St. Pius X granted their request. The Scapular Medal was to have the Sacred Heart of Jesus on one side and Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the other. St. Pius X stated: "We grant the use of the Scapular Medal, but We prefer that the cloth scapular be used."
Pope Benedict XV addressed the seminarians of Rome on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: "Let all of you have a common language and a common armor: the language the sentences of the Gospel- the common armor the Scapular of the Virgin of Carmel which you ought to wear and which enjoys the singular privilege and protection after death."
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.
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.”
Encyclical Of Pope Pius X
On The Immaculate Conception
Prayer to the Queen of Carmel
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.”
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.
St. Pius X
AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUMEncyclical Of Pope Pius X
On The Immaculate Conception
Prayer to the Queen of Carmel
O glorious Virgin Mary! Queen of Carmel, Mother of God and of poor sinners; special Protectress of all those who wear thy holy Scapular, I supplicate thee, by the glory that has been accorded thee by the Incarnate Word in choosing thee for His Mother, to obtain for me the pardon of my sins, amendment of my life, salvation of my soul, consolation in my pains, and in particular the grace I now ask, provided it be conformable to the will of thy divine Son. Amen.
A Short Treatise on the Scapular
A Short Treatise on the Scapular
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