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Pete wrote:

Hi, guys —

I just got enrolled in the Brown Scapular but I'm a little confused. I read in another answer on another site that this is not a requirement and the Church doesn't give any guidelines on the Brown Scapular, but at the end of the enrollment ceremony, the Priest advised everyone to say the Morning Offering at the bottom of the handout. My questions are:

  • What prayer or prayers are meant to be prayed with the Brown Scapular?
  • Are there specific ones meant to be said, like for the Rosary you say:
    Hail Mary's, Our Father's, Glory Be's and so on, or is the Morning Offering good enough?

Already I am praying for the start of our recent evangelization program every day, I devote one Rosary a week, and usually say more decades for things other than our evangelization program.

I have been growing my faith and understanding more about the role of God, Jesus, and His Teachings and prayer. Each time I think of something in my faith that I want to understand better, I search out information to grow more in the faith.

I started looking more at Mary and seeing how important she is in creation and the growth of the Church and how I can venerate her with the Brown Scapular.

I just want to make sure I am doing it correctly; I don't want to find out down the road that there are specific prayers meant to be said daily upon accepting/enrolling in the great gift of wearing the Brown Scapular.

Pete

  { Like the Rosary, what prayer or prayers are meant to be prayed with the Brown Scapular? }

Mike replied:

Dear Pete,

Sorry, it took a while to get back to you.

There are no required prayers that have to be said when wearing the Brown Scapular. The Brown Scapular is a miniaturized size of the brown habit that Benedictine monks wear daily. In a real sense, our prayer is the Catholic Christian way that we live our lives while wearing the Brown Scapular, just like the monks do. We are able to participate in honoring Mary as they do, but as lay Catholics. Cool, I think.

That said, the priest has great advice as there is certainly nothing wrong with praying the Morning Offering, no matter what faith a person currently believes. Even an agnostic should pray a morning offering . . . if he or she wants to.

When the Sabbatine Privilege (See About the Brown Scapular for a description) was first given, the Rosary was not as commonly practiced a devotion as it is today. At that time the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a shorter version similar to the Liturgy of the Hours) was said instead.

I've appended several documents we have on this topic:

I admire your desire to learn the faith. Keep on growing and learning more, especially in the area of apologetics. It will guard your faith against verbal challenges from others.

I hope this helps,

Mike

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