Chapter Sixteen
SIGN OF THEIR HEARTS
It was before I heard of Fatima, and six years before my first interview with Sister Lucia, that I wrote the book Mary in Her Scapular Promise. Later, I came to know the final vision of Our Lady at Fatima, in which She appeared with the Scapular. Then I renamed the book Sign of Her Heart.
But the original title was from the words of St. Claude de la Colombiere: "In that celebrated (Scapular) promise, Mary reveals all the tenderness of Her Heart."
The Scapular is the sign of covenant between our hearts and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. God chose St. Claude to preach devotion to the Sacred Heart and inspired him to preach, at the same time, that the surest way to please His Sacred Heart is to be united to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The saint said that, while there are many signs of devotion to Mary: "I aver without a moment's hesitation that the Scapular is the greatest of all."
There is a very, very important practical side to this.
Bl. José Maria Escriva asked: "What is the first thing necessary for devotion to Mary?" And he answered: "To realize that She is alive."
The Need to KNOW
We need to KNOW that Our Lady is listening when we pray. We need to REALIZE we are under Her mantle, next to Her Heart. And St. Claude says: "I need but reach out and touch the Scapular and I KNOW."
In a letter to a cousin who was married at Lourdes, St. Therese (the "Little Flower") wrote to the newlyweds that while the marriage vow made them two in one flesh, the Scapular made them two in one heart because, uniting them under Our Lady's mantle, it united them in Mary's Heart.
Two Hearts in covenant with the Immaculate Heart of Mary are, in Our Lady's protective love, more deeply in covenant with each other. And the Scapular is the principal devotion of covenant with Mary.
St. Claude said: "Since all forms of devotion to Mary cannot be equally agreeable to her I aver, without a moment's hesitation, that the Scapular is the most favored of all. I maintain that there is no devotion which renders our salvation so certain, and none to which we ought to attach ourselves with more confidence and zeal."
This does not mean that the Scapular is better than the Rosary. Sister Lucia said, "The Scapular and the Rosary are inseparable." But it is especially important to be aware of Our Lady's presence through Her constant and protecting love. It is important to KNOW when we pray that She is as close as love. She is listening.
St. Claude continues: "I would reproach myself were I to weaken your confidence in those other devotions to Mary, for they are all salutary and cannot fail to touch Her maternal Heart. But, if She graciously accords Her favors through them, how much more propitious will She not be to those who wear Her Scapular."
Paul VI said in application of Par. 67 of Lumen Gentium (which mandates that traditional devotions to Our Lady are to be "fostered" in the Church) that the two devotions MOST to be fostered now are the Rosary and the Scapular.31 These are the two practical means offered by Our Lady of Fatima in God's "final effort" for the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart in individuals and in the world.
The Scapular, like the Rosary, is more than just a physical sign. It is like a religious habit which sets a person apart as BELONGING to God in a special way. In the case of the Scapular, that belonging to God in a special way is in covenant with Mary. And when we are in covenant with Mary, we become at once intimately in covenant with Jesus.
"My Livery and That of My Son"
Our Lady's very first words at Pellevoisin were addressed to Satan, who had appeared at the deathbed of a dying young woman named Estelle Faguette. Our Lady said to the demon:
"What are you doing here? Do you not see that she is wearing MY LIVERY AND THAT OF MY SON?"
It was the first time in an approved apparition (which is usually an apparition with a public message) that Our Lady identified the Scapular not only as the sign of belonging to Her Heart but also of belonging to the Heart of Her Son. (A livery is a garment which indicates that the one who wears it is in the service of the person whose livery it is.)
Estelle, who had been expected to die within a matter of hours, was cured. (The miracle was recognized by the Church in 1983.) Fifteen apparitions followed in which Our Lady wore a small scapular over Her robe, which had a white front. As mentioned in the previous chapter on the importance of consecration to the Sacred Hearts, the Mother of God invited Estelle to come and kiss the small scapular She was wearing. As Estelle did so, THE SACRED HEART appeared upon it as a living Heart. And in that moment, Estelle had a mystical experience of the union of her heart with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
For a more complete understanding of this, the reader is urgently referred to my books Sign of Her Heart and especially Her Glorious Title. The latter might more appropriately bear the title The Sacred Hearts Revealed in Our Time. It speaks extensively of the wonderful messsage of Pellevoisin and of the revelations in Hungary on the conquering of the world by the "Flame of Love"-the Flame of the united love of the Sacred Hearts.
Spiritual Warfare
There is frequently a tendency, especially among modernists, to minimize the miraculous, and to downplay devotions like the Scapular and the Rosary. Even such great miracles as the parting of the Red Sea are given suggested natural explanations (as has the great miracle of Fatima, even though Our Lady foretold that it would be a MIRACLE, and that it would happen at a pre-announced time and place "so that all may believe").
All do not believe, and unfortunately some who do not believe devise scholarly arguments to shatter the belief of others. And if they cannot shatter belief they can sow doubts.
And in the case of devotions, doubts can be deadly.
The Scapular has been the subject of attack ever since Our Lady first gave it to the world in 1271, even though, after more than seven centuries, it has emerged as one of the two most widespread and most indulgenced devotions in the Church.
Decision of the Pope of the Council
We mentioned above that Pope Paul VI said that, in our time, the Rosary and the Scapular are the two Marian devotions MOST to be promoted in the Church. And the circumstances under which the Pope said this make it especially important.
During months of discussion about Paragraph 67 of Lumen Gentium (the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), the commission debated whether any specific devotion should be mentioned. Some wanted to mention the Rosary. But the commission decided that it was up to the Pope, at any given moment of history, to indicate which devotions were to be especially promoted and practiced at that time.
Shortly after Pope Paul VI had signed Lumen Gentium in the Vatican Council, this same Pope, in solemn circumstances, declared that of all the devotions to Mary, two were urgent at this time: the Scapular and the Rosary.
Those who would belittle these devotions decry "private" revelation. And it is very important to note that although devotions to the Heart of Jesus and to the Heart of Mary have been requested in our time in private revelations, it is because they are already in public revelation and have weathered centuries of experience, that the Church approves and encourages these devotions. The effectiveness of the Rosary and the Scapular devotions have been in the Church more than seven hundred years.
For us who believe the Church cannot err, especially in the voice of a Church Council or in a pronouncement of the Pope, the attacks on these devotions should be seen for what they are: a part of Satan's effort to destroy them because of their great benefit to souls.
Front Lines of Spiritual Warfare
When we promote the devotion to the Two Hearts, we are in the very front lines of spiritual warfare. St. Margaret Mary said that Jesus told her: "This devotion was the last effort of His Love granted to men in these latter ages in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which He desired to destroy..."
The Venerable Francis Yepes, brother of St. John of the Cross, was given to know that the three devotions Satan fears most are the invocation of the names of Jesus and of Mary, and the wearing of the Scapular. Demons were heard to cry out: "O Scapular, how many souls you snatch from us!"
They were actually saying: "O Hearts of Jesus and Mary, how many souls YOU snatch from us! What power do we have over souls consecrated to Your Hearts!?"
We have said before that this has special significance to the family. It is a continuing sign (night and day, in every moment) of spiritual bond among members of a family. It is the sign that all its members are in covenant with the Immaculate Heart of Mary and therefore, of course, with the Heart of Jesus.
What a consolation it is when someone we love is clothed in the Scapular at the moment of death!
The Great Promise
It was not our intention to speak here at any greater length of the Scapular except for the Sabbatine Privilege. We will explain this in the next chapter because this is a "special incentive" to fulfill the basic requests of Our Lady of Fatima.
But a special incident in the life and writings of St. Claude seems to clamor for attention here.
He tells of a woman who jumped into the river to commit suicide. The Scapular (which bears the promise that whoever dies clothed in it will die in the state of Grace) floated like a life preserver, holding her up.
A man fishing in the river saw her and went to the rescue, but before he reached her she snatched off the Scapular and sank out of sight.
It has never been known, in over seven hundred years, that anyone who died in the Scapular died refusing grace. The example above is exceptional because normally a person who wants to remain in sin will not continue to wear the Scapular. Indeed, this author's introduction to the Scapular at the age of five was from a similar incident with a very different ending.
A companion of my father was seized with a paralyzing fit while swimming in a dangerous river. My father saw his struggling companion held up by the scapular as if by a life preserver. But this time it was a soul preserver. The boy confessed that he was in mortal sin and realized that, because he was wearing that sign of Our Lady's maternal love, he was saved. He changed his life.
This and other books by John M. Haffert
God's
Final Effort | Too Late? | The Day I Didn't Die