HOW YOU MAY ESCAPE HELL AND BE FREED FROM PURGATORY ON THE SATURDAY AFTER YOUR DEATH - AVAIL YOURSELF OF THE BROWN CLOTH OF MERCY

St Simon Stock was one of the most noble sons of old Catholic England. By "old", I mean that Simon was born in the Middle Ages, circa 1165 and he was a child when England was the most Catholic and certainly the most Marian place ever. No place on earth before or since has ever bested old Catholic England for the extraordinary devotion the English showed the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Simon was born in the lush, green countryside of Kent, and was treated to many Marian festivals several days of the year when all the people of the land would throw parties and celebrate feasts.  Simon saw firsthand that people showed more clemency, more leniencey to each other on the major Marian feasts. Debts were forgiven, grudges dropped and peace made between people when they celebrated the Virgin who intercedes before God for the sinner to be shown mercy. T'would have been hypocritical for them not to show softness of heart towards those who had offended them, when they were venerating she whose softness of heart knows no equal. 

This prepared Simon well for the time when Our Lady would hand him the brown cloth of mercy.

He had quite a privileged background. His father was a governor, but still Simon sought to live like a hermit in a forest and he eked out a place to sleep in the hollow of a tree. For 12 years he prayed for the will of God to be made manifest in his life. His prayer was answered when Our Lady told him to enter the Order of Mount Carmel. 

On the auspicious day of July 16th, 1245, Our Lady appeared to Simon. Our Lady was surrounded by a host of angels. Simon lowered his head in submission before his Queen. She was joyful as she gave him a scapular of brown material. Simon was thus instructed by Our Lady, "Receive, my dear son, this scapular of thy Order, it is the badge of my Confraternity and the pledge of a privilege which I have obtained for thee and for thy brethren of Mount Carmel. Those who die devoutly clothed in this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the sign of salvation, a safeguard in peril, a pledge of peace and special protection, until the end of time". 

Simon Stock gladly did tours of the land with the scapular. He worked many miracles. When the brown cloth which came from Heaven was brought to a person in the jaws of death, they often recovered completely and miraculously. The scapular knew a most happy reception among the English Catholics of the time who showed a tender love of this gift from the Virgin Mary. They were the first members of the Confraternity of the Scapular, who sought a scapular for themselves and had themselves enrolled for life in the Confraternity. 

This Scapular with its two brown rectangles of cloth - one for the front of your body and the other for your back  - is the Carmelite habit in miniature. As Our Lady is your Blessed Mother, she clothes you, her child in the finest livery of Heaven. The promises she gave Simon Stock are for you, too, and if you "die devoutly clothes in this habit" you will be, "preserved from eternal fire".

But the promises don't end there. When St Simon had been in his grave for 50 years, Our Lady appeared to Pope John XXII, and she made him the messenger of another promise, "If among the Religious or members of the Confraternity of Mount Carmel, there are any who, on account of their faults, are condemned to Purgatory, I will descend into the midst of them like a tender Mother on the Saturday after their death, I will deliver them and conduct them to the holy mount of eternal life."

Yes, if you faithfully wear the Brown Scapular, and if you are set to have a stint in Purgatory, you may be faithfully released on the Saturday after your death. Why Saturday, you may ask? Saturday is the day dedicated to Our Lady, and as I wrote in Hail Holy Queen of Purgatory, Our Lady visits Purgatory on this day, and gives light and refreshment to the souls detained there. The souls there are like insomniacs on beds of torture, they have waited through a long, dark night, waiting for the light of day, and for them the appearance of Our Lady is like the dawn.

The process of being enrolled in the Confraternity can sound like a complicated, hard process, when it is in fact a very straightforward occasion, and actually a very happy time for most because it is an occasion to be surrounded by others who are delighted that they will be in receipt of the promises. But, before your enrollment, you will need to get your Brown Scapular. 

Have them blessed and house them in your Spiritual Strongbox. I would exhort you to buy several spares and a separate bunch for friends and family. If you are met with resistance from those who you would like to give a Brown Scapular, perhaps tell them that when Simon Stock was doing the rounds of the English countryside back in the day, the old English Catholics greeted him and his scapular with contagious gratitude and joy, and they were only too eager to partake of Heaven's clothing. I have witnessed how this softens a person who otherwise would view the scapular as a burden, because the example of the old English Catholics instructs that the scapular is a blessing. 

As for the devotion proper to the Brown Scapular, you may kiss your scapular with affection, and give your heart to offering this prayer:

Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel 

O Most Holy Virgin, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, you are the joy of the Church triumphant, the help of the Church Militant, and the comfort of the Church Suffering. Therefore, extend, we pray you, your merciful glance on those numerous souls who suffering in the fires of Purgatory and free them, that they may be admitted to the beatific vision of God as soon as possible. 

Remember O Holy Virgin, to help especially those of my relatives, and those who are most abandoned and devoid of help.  O most merciful Virgin, pour the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus on the elect brides of Jesus Christ until they are comforted in the Heavenly glories. 

And you, holy souls, O elect souls, who can do so much through your prayers to God for us, intercede, therefore, for us and free us from the dangers of body and soul.  Protect our families until we have all been granted admission to eternal happiness.  Amen.  

This is the last Saturday in November, month of the holy souls, and like last year, my post for this day concerns Our Lady's role in relieving and delivering souls from Purgatory.