Author Topic: Superstition and the Scapular (Read 2401 times)

Bazz · « **on:** January 31, 2011, 10:27:14 AM »

From Catholic Encyclopedia on Orestus Augustus Brownson:

"so able and intrepid an advocate did he prove in defence of the Faith, that he merited a letter of approbation and encouragement from the Bishops of the United States assembled in Plenary Council at Baltimore, in May, 1849, and from Pope Pius IX, in April, 1854."

From Brownson's Quarterly Review for October, 1860:

Protestants accuse our church of overlaying faith with a mass of errors, and smothering true piety with a multitude of superstitious practices and observances. The charge is false; but if brought against portions of a Catholic population, and not against the church, it would be not absolutely unfounded. We have many devotions perfectly true, holy, and useful, in the sense in which they have been proposed; but which individuals may abuse and render superstitious in practice. All these devotions are fitted and intended to impress upon the mind and heart the great mysteries of our faith, and to quicken our love and gratitude to him who hath died to redeem us. Thus we wear the scapular or a miraculous medal, or make a pilgrimage to La Salette in honor of our Lady, and so far as these things remind us of the mystery of the Incarnation, render our faith in that great mystery more lively, our devotion to God more fervent, our love to our neighbor more ardent, and our resolution to imitate the supernatural virtues of our Lady herself firmer, they are good, and serve admirably the purposes of the Christian life; but if supposed to be sacraments, to have some virtue in themselves, independent of the disposition of him who observes them, they become in those who so suppose, simple superstitious practices. To suppose that the simple wearing of the scapular of our Lady, even if one should die with it on, is of itself a sure guaranty against eternal punishment, is mere superstition, and not a harmless superstition either. The scapular is not a charm, and the benefits promised to the wearer are secured only by his faith and piety, his earnest devotions, or his observing certain prescribed conditions, and he who observes those conditions will be saved, without wearing it, though he may be detained longer in purgatory.
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PartyIsOver221 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2011, 02:40:15 AM »

Thank you Bazz for sharing, and you are no longer a member here , but anyways thanks.

Emerentiana · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2011, 08:32:49 PM »

Quote from: PartyIsOver221

Thank you Bazz for sharing, and you are no longer a member here , but anyways thanks.

The Party is over, Bazz.......... :roll-laugh1:

Anyone who dies wearing the scapular does not go to hell............Our lLady's promise.........not superstition! What an insult to our Lady! :really-mad2:

Sigismund · « **Reply #3 on:** February 02, 2011, 12:04:20 PM »

Well, not quite. A willfully impenitent sinner who wore it because he thought of it as a free pass would surely not benefit from Our Lady's promise. It applies to people of faith, no?

Telesphorus · « **Reply #4 on:** February 02, 2011, 12:21:50 PM »

Quote from: Sigismund

Well, not quite. A willfully impenitent sinner who wore it because he thought of it as a free pass would surely not benefit from Our Lady's promise. It applies to people of faith, no?

Belief in the efficacy of the scapular is not an article of Faith.

I wear one, but is it really true the the Blessed Mother made such a promise to St. Simon Stock?

I am certain Catholics are not bound to believe so.

Sigismund · « **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2011, 07:55:42 PM »

I don't think we are ever bound to believe in private revelations. It seems to me that Fatima is pretty reliable, though.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2011, 09:18:03 PM »

Quote from: Sigismund

I don't think we are ever bound to believe in private revelations. It seems to me that Fatima is pretty reliable, though.

Well, we are bound if we get them with proper signs I should say. Doesn't apply to most of us, obviously.

Emerentiana · « **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2011, 10:28:15 PM »

Quote from: Sigismund

Well, not quite. A willfully impenitent sinner who wore it because he thought of it as a free pass would surely not benefit from Our Lady's promise. It applies to people of faith, no?

If you read books on the brown scapular, it tells incidences of sinners having the scapular mysteriously removed before their death.
I will tell you a story of a happening in my life.
I knew a pagan lady that was married to a Catholic man. They were friends of ours. She decided to be baptized in the Church many years later and asked me to be her godmother. I told her I couldnt do that because I no longer attended the Vatican 2 church. This caused us to not see each other for years.
I heard that she had a very bad heart attack the day before Christmas. She stopped breathing and her huxsband who was a paramedic gave her mouth to mouth resesitation and got her to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, she was in intensive care. The nurse told me she was not expected to live thru the night.
I went to her husband and gave him a brown scapular. I told him the promise that Our Lady made that those who die wearing the scapular would not suffer the fires of hell.

I related to her husband that many miracles are worked by Our Lord at Christmas. I told him that I could not put the brown scapular on her, but that the hospital would let him do it.
I went home and prayed. The day after Christmas, I went to visit my friend. Expecting to see her in the intensive care unit, I went there.
To my surprise she was not there. I asked, "Did she die" The nurses told me "No", but that she had quickly recovered, and was now on the floor.
She did not want to see me. Her daughter told me that she just sits and stares and clutches the scapular around her neck.
She was not mentally right for the next 2 years, but recovered.
I saw her a couple years later in passing. She was very nasty to me. She told me that she went back to being a protestant. About 2 years or so after that she died in the Protestant faith.
I believe that she was supposed to die, but thru Our Lady's scapular promise whe was spared.
I do not know what happened to her that night, but I do know that she was saved from hell that night.
There are books filled with stories like this. Our Lady lets NO ONE die with the scapular on that she does not wish to save from hell.

Catholic Samurai · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2011, 01:06:58 AM »

There was a group of Communist soldiers who were being executed during the Spanish cινιℓ ωαr. All of them agreed to wear the Scapular before facing the firing squad. One of the soldiers accepted it from the priest, but swore to the very end that he way dying and enemy of religion and the Catholic Church. The man was executed, and his Scapular was found someways off behind him... apparently it had been shot off before the other bullets hit him.

Catholic Samurai · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2011, 06:19:35 PM »

Another time a man tried committing ѕυιcιdє 3 different times by drowning himself, but each time was saved. He then got the idea to take off his Scapular. This time his attempt at ѕυιcιdє was successful.