THE BROWN SCAPULAR




“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein

My wife and I are presently staying at my in-laws' place because of the lockdown. Today, early in the morning, my 85-year-old father-in-law asked me about a Mother Mary shrine near Mangalore. “Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” he said. I was clueless about both, the feast and the Mount Carmel shrine which my father-in-law was talking about. It was 6.30 in the morning… He had already finished saying his prayers!

A couple of hours later, Jennifer, my cousin, sent to me this picture:






She wrote, “Remembering Sr. Leo who used to give us these scapulars every time she visited us.”

Sr. Leo was my aunt. She and Jennifer’s mom (Mary) were both my dad’s younger sisters. Sr. Leo (Cecil, her real name) was a Carmelite nun. She was one of the calmest souls we had known. Whenever she visited us – which included the families of her three sisters and four brothers – she had only one precious gift to offer us – ‘The Brown Scapular’!

The legend of the Brown Scapular dates back to July 16, 1251, when Mother Mary herself believed to have appeared before St. Simon Stock (Vicar General of the Carmelite Order), on the Mount Carmel, and presented him the Brown Scapular carrying the promise: “Whoever dies clothed in this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire”!

Now, come on! For restless village kids like us, the ‘eternal fire of hell’ seemed light years ahead… What mattered most was some nice goodies like a handful of chocolates or a shirt piece or a toy or two to play with. Our interpretation was simple, rustic and practical: those goodies would help us suffer less in our village, you see!

Today, when Jennifer and my father-in-law took me back to those days, I smiled and said, “I have been wearing the invisible Brown Scapular for decades to protect myself in danger, doubts and difficulties!”  

And, that seems to me as one more miracle of Mother Mary!




As my life had begun to transform with a new-found confidence (while in F.Y. B. Com), powered by the influence of Prof. B.S. Raman, I had suddenly realized the need to improve my communication skills, both spoken and written. Mysteriously, on one of those days, Sr. Lawrence, a fellow nun and a dear friend of aunt Sr. Leo, appeared before me… She had specially undertaken an inter-states trip to hand me over with a priceless gift - ‘Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary’ (A Catholic Edition). It had a brown sturdy-cover with words inscribed on it in gold. Yes, it was a massive reservoir of knowledge… It had an exhaustive writers’ guide… and sections on etymology, synonyms and antonyms, foreign words and phrases, important quotations and proverbs, and a lot more. For a starry-eyed and thirsty village-kid like me, it’s the proverbial Manna from heaven… I can’t’ tell you as to how much time I would devote on that ‘Bible’ of mine…  I brought it along when I migrated to Bombay and continued to spend time on it… I still do!

So, today, I was smiling thinking about this ‘Brown Scapular’ I was wearing on my heart for decades…





Who had sent Sr. Lawrence, that day, to me - was it my aunt, Sr. Leo, or Our Lady of Mount Carmel?

And, with what a promise!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.:  1. www.mannaexpressonline.com  2. domenicmarando.blogspot.com
        3. pixabay

Video: The Beatles/Nunsanga Ralte

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