The Association of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel

THE BROWN SCAPULAR OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

The Brown Scapular is the Habit of Carmel in miniature. The Carmelite Order, to which it belongs, had its origin in the Holy Land on Mount Carmel near the fountain of Elijah, the prophet. He was the inspiration of the early hermits, who lived there at the beginning of the thirteen century; these spiritual sons of the prophet found in Mary, the Mother of God, the perfect example of his life of prayer and contemplation. She taught them how to live a life dedicated to the service of God and of others.

The Saracen invasion forced the Carmelites to leave the Holy Mountain. Tradition tells how they prayed for her guidance and how she guided them to new homes far from Carmel. In 1241 or 1242, they came to Aylesford near Maidstone in Kent, where their first thought was to build a shrine in honour of the Glorious Virgin.

It proved no easy matter to transplant the Order from East to West, and at times the difficulties seemed insurmountable. Tradition assures us that the Prior General, Simon Stock, had recourse to Mary, whom he greatly loved; she appeared to him and made the Habit of Carmel a sign of her special love and a pledge of her motherly protection.

From the dawn of its history, the Habit of Carmel has been a sign of consecration to Mary. For some time it was the exclusive possession of the Order, but in the fourteenth century we find a bridge appearing between these the Order and people living in the world. Many of these good people were anxious to be associated with Carmel, and the Scapular became a sign of affiliation to the Order. This was the origin of the Third Order of Carmel and of the Confraternity of the Brown Scapular. It is important to stress that this form of Scapular devotion preceded the Vision of Our lady attributed to Simon Stock; apart altogether from the Vision, the Scapular devotion is rich in spiritual values as a means of consecrating oneself to Our Lady and of sharing “in all the Masses, prayers and good works performed by the Religious of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel”.

Since the Scapular is a sign of total consecration to Mary, it must be a constant reminder to imitate her life of prayer, faith and service. Mary lived to serve her Divine Son. The Scapular should remind us always to be about our Father’s business. Mary still lives to serve and we ought to follow her footsteps. Our constant prayer to her should be: USE ME TODAY. As Pius XII, the great lover of the Scapular, wrote, “Certainly this most gentle Mother will not delay to open as soon as possible the gates of heaven for her children”, those specially consecrated to her through the Scapular.

These pages have been written to help the reader to become acquainted with the aims, goal, and heart of the Apostolate of prayer and Eucharistic love.

In our rosaries, we look with eyes of faith on Bethlehem, Calvary, the Resurrection. They all spell this word LOVE. In the Blessed Sacrament, there is the tangible point of God’s love for us.

Faith in the Living God is faith in the meaning, purpose and content of out lives. So we say that if the world seeks him today, then it will find peace, joy, inward fulfilment, a meaningful life and the end of conflict.