Saturday - Day of Our Lady

"The Glories of Mary" by St. Alphonsus of Liquori

SIXTH DEVOTION 'Of the Scapular'

As men esteem it an honour to have persons who wear their livery, so also is our Blessed Lady pleased that her clients should wear her scapular as a mark that they have dedicated themselves to her service, and that they are members of the household of the Mother of God. Modern heretics, as usual, ridicule this devotion; but the holy Church has approved it by many bulls and indulgences. Fathers Crasset and Lezzana (Tom. li.tr6,par.4; In Mar.cap.5,n10) speaking of the scapular of Mount Carmel, relate towards the year 1251, the Blessed Virgin appeared to saint Simon Stock, an Englishman, and giving him the scapular, said, that all who should wear it would be saved from eternal damnation. She said, 'Receive, my beloved son, this scapular of thy order, the badge of my confraternity, a priviledge granted to thee and to all Carmelites: whoever dies clothed with it will not suffer eternal flames.' Moreover, father Crasset relates that Mary appeared to Pope John XXII., and commanded him to make it known that all those who should wear this scapular would be delivered from purgatory on the Saturday after their deaths; and this he did by a bull, which was afterwards confirmed by Alexander V., Clement VII., and other Pontiffs. Paul V., as we have remarked in the first part of this work, gives us to understand the same thing, and seems to explain the bulls of his predecessors, and prescribes in his the conditions on which the indulgences may be gained. These conditions are: that each one should observe the chastity required in his state of life, and the recitation of the little office of the Blessed Virgin; those who cannot do so must be exact in keeping the fast days prescribed by the Church, and abstain from meet on Wednesdays....that on Saturdays, the day consecrated to Her by the Church, she will, in a more particular manner, help the souls of the brethren of the Confraternity of Our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel who have departed this life in the state of grace, provided they have worn the habit, observed the chastity of their state, and recited her office: if they could not recite it, they have to observe the fasts of the Church, and abstaine form meat on all Wednesdays except Christmas Day.' In the Solemn Office of our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel we read, that it is piously believed that the Blessed Virgin comforts the brethren of this confraternity in purgatory with maternal love, and that by her intercession she soon delivers them, and takes them to heaven....
The indulgences, moreover, which are annexed to this scapular of Mount Carmel, as also to those of the Seven Dolours, of Our Lady of Mercy, and especially to that of her Immaculate Conception, are innumerable, as well partial as plenary, both in life and for the hour of death. For my own part, I have been careful to receive all these scapulars. To that of the Immaculate Conception in particular, very great indulgences have been attached by various sovereing pontiffs.