Investiture of the Brown Scapular with Fr. Jeffrey Kirby

Your Host: Adam Wright

Roadmap to Heaven

Adam Wright:

You know that I always love speaking with Father Jeffrey Kirby, pastor of Our Lady of Grace in Indian Land, South Carolina. I’m sad to say this is going to be our last regular interview with Father, but he’s going to be on the show in the future. Don’t you worry about that. We’ll make sure of it. But we’re talking with Father Jeffrey Kirby on this Tuesday morning about his new book, Journey to Mount Carmel: A Nine-Day Preparation for Investiture in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady. Father Kirby, good morning to you, and thank you for being with us again.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Good morning, Adam. It’s always good to be with you.

Adam Wright:

Now, we’ve talked about the Brown Scapular before, we’ve talked about Our Lady of Mount Carmel before, and we’re going to have a little refresher here this morning. But what we haven’t talked about is a nine day preparation. And from my understanding of the Scapular, especially after the last time we spoke, there’s really not much official preparation you have to do. You pretty much just have to decide you want to be invested in the Scapular and then live the life that’s required of it, and go to a priest for a blessing of the Scapular and enrollment. And yet, preparation for things is helpful, because sometimes, Father, I don’t know if you’ve ever done this. I say yes to things, and I don’t know what I’m getting myself into. And if only there would have been a period of preparation, maybe, just maybe, I would have had a better yes.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yes, absolutely. To highlight how spiritually important it could be in terms of being invested in the Scapular, that it can help any baptized person to deepen in what we receive, the baptism, our adoption in Jesus Christ to God the Father. And that preparation because the investiture can be as much as we make it or as little. So to your point, there’s no official preparation, but I will say that more and more people are reaching out and saying, “Well, if I have to do 33 days to prepare for the Marian consecration, shouldn’t I do something to be invested in the Brown Scapular?” And more and more that kept coming up, and I thought, “If the people of God are asking for this, let’s see what we can do.”
And of course, the spiritual treasury of the church is vast. So I just kind of poked around a little bit and I thought, “One thing that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention are our six baptismal promises.” We renew those every year as believers at the Easter celebrations. And so they’re reminders to us of the three renunciations. We renounce sin, the lure of sin, and the evil one. And we affirm our belief in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. These six baptismal promises are really important. And yet more and more, I think, just in terms of regular Catholic life, they get forgotten. And maybe perhaps some people, when they hear baptismal promises or baptismal vows, people may not even realize what I’m talking about. And so I said, “Let me retrieve this, and then kind of take these six promises, stretch them out a little bit over nine days.” I only chose nine because of the traditional novena, we recognize that as Catholics. Just stretched it out and thought, “Okay, we can do this.”
And I’ll tell you, Adam, also one of the things that inspired me with this is when the Second Vatican Council addressed Pious traditions. It said that the shepherds of the Church were to place the Pious traditions within the context of the Paschal Mystery and show their connection to the liturgical year. Now, regrettably, what happened after the Council, is a lot of people misinterpreted what Vatican II said, and they threw all the sacramentals out, the Pious traditions. So Processions, Novena, Rosary Scapulars, they just threw them all out. That’s not what Vatican II said. It said, “No, teach the faithful”, and especially in terms of the Paschal Mystery. So something about the Scapular and preparation, I thought, “Well, let’s go back to the Paschal Mystery.” When were we incorporated into the Paschal Mystery, become a part of it? At our baptism. So all that kind of came to this nine day preparation.

Adam Wright:

Now, earlier this morning, we were making coffee in the studio, and someone, “Oh, we have caramel coffee today.” I said, “Oh, we’ll be talking about Our Lady of Mount Carmel later this morning.” But two different, very different things. When we talk about Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we’re not talking about sugar that’s been caramelized in the pan, as delicious as that may be. Tell us a little bit about Our Lady under that title, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yeah. So it’s interesting because early in the Christian tradition, we had these hermits that felt called to Mount Carmel. So in the Old Testament, very much, Carmel was a sign of God’s presence, a place of waiting and listening to God. And in our tradition, early hermits, early in our tradition, began to assemble around Carmel, because Carmel is actually a mountain range. When we say Mount Carmel, we think of just one mountain, but it’s actually a mountain range. The hermits would go there. And there are powerful accounts of the early Carmelite hermits having visions and messages and spiritual gifts given to them from Our Lady, so much so that these Carmelites began very early on to place themselves under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. So it was Our Lady’s visits (spiritual visits, apparitions and so on) that eventually led to this devotion.
That pretty much was a devotion within the Carmelite community until the hermits were called to become friars because of the needs of the Church. So friars are like Franciscans, Dominicans, and the Carmelites. And then that’s when the Carmelites left Carmel and began to bring the spirituality all throughout the church. That’s where most of us became familiar with this powerful, beautiful, ancient tradition and spirituality of Mount Carmel. And of course, Our Lady is there. In fact, one tradition actually calls her Mount Carmel because the presence of God, the waiting of God, the listening to God. Who did that better, other than Our Lady of Nazareth, right? Mary. So yes, in many ways, there’s so many layers in terms of her connection to Mount Carmel.

Adam Wright:

Now, when we think of the Scapular, I remember the first time I learned that actually in the religious habits of several of the monastic orders, the Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, so on and so forth, they have a fabric that drapes down the front of their habit and the back. And you’re like, “Well, what’s that? It’s not a cape because it’s going down the front.” And they said, “No, that’s our Scapular.” And I thought, “Wait a minute. Now, I thought the Scapular was a little piece of cloth with the two bands that you get at the religious supply store and then you wear that.” And I started wondering which came first here. And I have a feeling it was the monastic Scapular first. And then the laity were invited to take on some of that charism in our life by wearing not a full Scapular, but this small piece of cloth: two pieces attached with two strings. Could you give us a little background on the Brown Scapular? What it is, why we wear it, and what we’re committing to if we decide to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yeah, so it’s interesting. In our faith, we always have the practical as well as the spiritual. So early on, the Scapular actually started as a kind of apron to cover the original habits of religious. So friars, monks, sisters. So it was basically work gear. So they put it on when they were working so that their habit itself wouldn’t become stained, and eventually it was merged into the habit. And then Our Lady, of course, with the Carmelites, she elevated it to a great spiritual gift. And I kind of think it’s interesting if you know the history, because you can imagine of all the things Our Lady could give to Saint Simon Stock, to the Carmelite order, she gives the Scapular. So you can imagine, she gives it to the Carmelites and says, “Okay, now here, work harder” because it really is work here. And, Adam, you got it. Over time, the baptized said, “Well, we want to share in this spirituality.” So the lady eventually took on a very modified version of the full Scapular that is worn by religious, by the Carmelite fathers and sisters. So I always like to say that our Scapular that we wear is a reminder to us of this beautiful Carmelite spirituality, our call to wait and to listen to God, reminds us of our consecration to Jesus Christ. And the Scapular can be a great help in many ways, but that’s how we got our modified little Scapular from the religious Scapular.

Adam Wright:

Now, one of my favorite things about the modified little Scapular that we wear: it’s two rectangles of wool with an image. One has an image of our Lord, and one has an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and it’s similar to a necklace. There are two bands that hold them together. One drapes over right below your neck, one on the top of your back. And if you’ve ever worn wool before without something between wool and your skin, you know how pleasant that can be. And that’s intentional. It’s supposed to be a little – not a nagging. I’m not going to say Our Lady nags us, but a little prompting throughout the day, a reminder for us that, “Hey, you’re wearing this, and you’ve committed to certain things here.”

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yeah. And I’ll tell you, Adam, what’s great is when you wear a Scapular long enough, it kind of gets faded down, which is great. Then inevitably, a Scapular will break or have to be replaced, and you get a new Scapular, and the whole experience starts over. It’s like you just want to scratch. And people are like, “What’s wrong with that guy?” What it is, it’s supposed to be, you can imagine, almost a very modified version of the old hair shirts: just a small discomfort to remind us of the cross that we’re called to carry. A reminder to us that we can offer up all of our sufferings, certainly greater ones than a small irritation, to our Lord to be offered to the Father. So, again, a small way of just reminding us of our vocation. And, Adam, I tell people, “In a secular world, my goodness, we need all the help we can get.” Because we walk out of our homes in the midst of society, and we’re told by society, “God’s not real. There is no moral truth. Prayer has no power.” And we have to remind ourselves, as believers, that those are all lies and remind ourselves of the truth. And the sacramentals are a great help to us. And I think the Scapular in particular.

Adam Wright:

Yeah. With each passing day, we’re getting closer to Ash Wednesday. And I always love that paradox between the gospel on Ash Wednesday: When you pray, go to the inner room. When you fast, don’t let anyone know you’re fasting. But when you go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, get a big cross on your forehead of ashes. But the Scapular, I mean, this really fits in with that gospel. This is not something that we wear over the clothes as a pious display. “Look at how holy I am. I have devotion to Our Lady.” It’s really just for us to remember, throughout the day, that we have committed to a life of holiness, as the Blessed Mother wants us to do, as her son calls us to live. And I love those little reminders: “Oh, I’m noticing my Scapular. I want to itch. Good time to just say a brief prayer.” I mean, we’ve been talking a lot on the show recently about those aspirational prayers. My favorite: “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you. Save souls.” It’s like, “Oh, I itch. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you. Save souls.” It’s a great opportunity for us.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yes. And the fact that it’s over our heart as well, it all just lends itself to realizing God’s presence and offering up those small prayers. My favorite is “Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.” Or with the Brown Scapular, just right over the heart, say, “Lord, make my heart a Carmel for you.” So there are beautiful ways that we have set ones, but also, I tell people, “You pray whatever you want.” Because sometimes people get nervous, “Well, I couldn’t remember what it was.” There’s no wrong way to pray. Just say whatever you need to say, and that small Scapular can be a reminder to us of that call to prayer.

Adam Wright:

All right, now let’s look forward to the end of these nine days, because I like to be prepared in advance. I’ll get the book, I’ll go through each of the nine days of preparation, taking us through the baptismal promises and getting us ready. And then I’ll have my Scapular that I’ll acquire from the religious goods store. I mean, pretty much any Catholic bookstore, you can find them. If not, go online, you can order a Scapular. What do I do then, to be invested in the Scapular?

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

So first I’d like to mention that, of course, anyone can be invested, any baptized person. So if someone’s not, they can start the preparation. But also, I want to remind people, that for those of us who have been invested in the Brown Scapular, we can devotionally renew that. So if there’s someone who’s saying, “I’d like to do something to kind of just go deeper in my discipleship”, this could be an opportunity for them, too, even if they’ve already been invested previously in the Scapular. But I would say the first thing you do is go to the appendix and find a holy day in which you want to be invested. And then make sure you block out the nine days. Try to find a priest that will be available for you to do that. You want to make sure the priest is available. And then you start the nine day preparation. And then at the end of the nine days, right in the book is the ceremony, and you can bring that with you. The priest may have it, you can check with him, but if not, you can bring it with you. And then the priest will just invest, give the blessing. Usually there’s some use of holy water, and that’s it. You’re invested in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady.

Adam Wright:

Wow. Incredibly simple, and yet incredibly profound, and great implications for us in our spiritual life. Well, the book, if you want to make this preparation, is Journey to Mount Carmel: A Nine-Day Preparation for Investiture in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady by Father Jeffrey Kirby. And, Father Kirby, I’ve asked you to do this many times before. It’s my pleasure to ask you again, if you could close our time together with a prayer and a blessing for our listeners.

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Yes, my pleasure. Let us pray. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He let His face shine upon you. May He grant you His peace. And may Almighty God bless you. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Adam Wright:

Amen. We want to thank you for tuning into this video version of Roadmap to Heaven, and be sure to check out our social media for more content just like this.

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Good morning, Adam. It’s always good to be with you.

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Fr. Jeff Kirby:

Adam Wright:

Amen. We want to thank you for tuning into this video version of Roadmap to Heaven, and be sure to check out our social media for more content just like this.