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July 20, 2022I have a vivid memory of my mother wrapping me in a woolen blanket and carrying me to the doctor’s office when I was about three years of age. I had come down with a cold that lingered and became pneumonia. It was an icy and snowy December, two weeks before Christmas, and I ran a very high fever and was too weak to walk. Mom trudged through the snow to get me to the doctor’s care as soon as possible. Nothing was going to stop her from getting me to his healing help. I was wrapped not only in a woolen blanket but also in my Mom’s love.
Since the time of my First Holy Communion, my heavenly Mother has wrapped me in her loving mantle and has carried me through the trials and tribulations of life to her Son, the Divine Physician so that I might receive His healing help and mercy. This mantle is her Brown Scapular that we remember in a special way each July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I have worn her Scapular since the day of my First Holy Communion.
Tradition tells us that the Mother of God appeared to St. Simon Stock, the Master General of the Carmelite Order, on July 16, 1251 assuring him that, “This will be a privilege for you and for all Carmelites, that he who dies in this (scapular) will not suffer eternal fire.” This story describes how the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, is always ready to enfold us in the garment of maternal love. The Carmelites at the time of St. Simon Stock were under great attack by those who did not understand their new way of religious life. There was a serious doubt about their survival. Enter their Heavenly Mother with the Scapular, her garment of protection, and they not only survived but also flourished.
Pope St. John Paul II, whose love and devotion Our Lady was so profound, wore the Brown Scapular his entire life. When he was rushed to Gemelli Hospital after the assassination attempt on May 13, 1981 that almost took his life, he was wheeled into the operating room wearing the Scapular. He said to the doctors, “Don’t take off the Scapular.” They left it on and, thanks be to God, he survived.
In St. John Paul II’s message to the Carmelites in 2001 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Our Lady’s bestowal of the scapular on St. Simon Stock, he gave them a beautiful message.
Two truths are evoked by the sign of the Scapular: on one hand, the constant protection of the Blessed Virgin, not only on life’s journey, but also at the moment of passing into the fullness of eternal glory; on the other, the awareness that devotion to her cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions, but must become a ‘habit’, that is a permanent orientation of one’s Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through frequent reception of the sacraments and the concrete practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way the Scapular becomes a sign of the ‘covenant’ and reciprocal communion between Mary and the faithful: indeed, it concretely translates the gift of his Mother, which Jesus gave on the cross to John, and through him, to all of us, and the entrustment of the beloved Apostle and of us to her, who became our spiritual Mother. (Message of John Paul II to the Carmelite Family, March 25, 2001)
The woolen blanket in which my Mom carried me into the doctor’s office so many years ago was a sign of her love for me. Likewise, the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is truly a sign for me of my Heavenly Mother’s love always bringing me to the healing love and mercy of her Divine Son. In life’s sorrows and joys, my Mother is with me protecting me and guiding me. As a dear Carmelite nun friend of mine says, “Live under the mantle and all shall be well!”
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us and protect us!
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh
