Vigil of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Well, time for one of my sporadic posts. I checked my email today and it hit me how little I've been on here. I am just too weak to spend all that much time on the internet and not end up wasting a lot of time. So although I'm going to keep this blog up, and I'm going to write on it when I can, I will probably never have a very active blog.

As I'm looking into the traditional third order of Carmel, this feast is doubly special to me this year. I was enrolled in the Scapular by a dear friend when I was still at the Novus Ordo. As was typical with any traditional devotions, I had heard nothing about it and didn't really see what the big deal was, but since I was enrolled on the feast of the Assumption when I made my total consecration to Our Lady, I figured it wouldn't hurt to wear it. But it annoyed me tremedously. I could not find clothing other then turtlenecks that "the thing" (as I called it) did not manage to come out of, babies loved to get little fingers and toes stuck in it, and the wool itched at first. I figured it was a devotion in the sense that other kinds of scapulars or medals might be and didn't really understand the unique place it held. I had read something in the little piece of paper enclosed that if you took your scapular off it was like renouncing the faith or something, so I left it on...most of the time.

Shortly after we began to attend the TLM, a parishoner gave me a small book and a audio tape on the Brown Scapular. I was amazed at what a beauitful gift Mary had given us, how unique it was, and how...proven...it was. And I was horrified at how casually and almost contempuously I had worn it, and how close I had come to taking it off!

So although I also want to take advantage of this feast day to post a link to a site about a little known Carmelite saint who has earned a place among my favorites, St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, I also want to provide some links to information about the Brown Scapular, so curious non-Catholics can read and Catholics can see what a great gift Our Lady has given us.

The Rosary, Brown Scapular, and the Sabbantine Privilage
St. Dominic's prophecy, Fatima, and the Scapular
The Brown Scapular of Mt. Carmel