The Spirituality of the Scapular

Many of our students wear scapulars. Scapulars are two pieces of brown fabric (or sometimes plastic) joined together by two strings. They are worn over the shoulders with one piece of fabric resting on the chest and the other on the back.

These Scapulars are worn as a form of religious devotion. Their historical origin is not completely clear but they seem to have developed in Medieval Europe as a way for ordinary people to symbolically participate in monasticism, the little pieces of fabric being a type of mini-habit. Over time the spiritual beliefs about scapulars evolved, and for many people they came to be seen as having magical powers such as the ‘Scapular Promise’ (see the picture). Such beliefs are not accepted by ‘official’ Catholic teaching but they are still commonly believed.

I mention all this about scapulars because they are a good example of the wider religious culture here.

Religion here is not principally about ‘believing’ it is much more about ‘doing’. Religion is very practical and very immediate. Whereas in Europe we emphasis the intellect and the mind here it is the experiential and the physical. Religion is much less about books and much more about ritual practises. Trinkets, statues and medals are really important; people like to wear pictures of Saints. The rosary is a very popular prayer said while walking, touching the beads as each prayer passes. In churches it is not uncommon to see people stood before (often very ugly) statues seemingly deep in prayer. Frequent processions and vigils form an important part of the regular liturgical routine.

It is not surprising that this is the reality here; our experience of the education system makes it very clear that a religious faith based on books would be unsustainable just as was the case for medieval Europe.

The advantage of such a religious culture is its accessibility; there is no need to study, to struggle with deep ideas or sign up to lots of abstract dogmas. Perhaps there is a lot that we Europeans can relearn about the need for religion to be accessible and close to reality. Maybe we need to reconsider the ways in which the physical and the spiritual can be closer connected?

The disadvantage, of course, is that these popular forms of devotion can very easily become forms of superstition which are performed so as to earn blessings and favours. In such a climate there is a great risk that belief in the unconditional love of God gets forgotten.

The Scapular promise is a good example of these kinds of distortions. Another example is the rosary, when people speak about why they say the rosary often they will mention ideas such as that Mary will send us special spiritual blessings or that we can earn special graces from Mary. The same sentiments are voiced about all sorts of spiritual practises, to our European ears the spirituality of ‘Salvation by spiritual works’ is never far away.

And yet perhaps such a quick judgement is unfair, the human psyche is rarely so simply summed up. The well educated European Church knows that we pray, not to convince God to love us, but as a response to the fact that God already loves us.  But the reality is that we don’t actually pray that much, suggesting that we aren’t all that convinced by what we think we believe. What we claim to believe intellectually is not borne out by our practise.

Here maybe the opposite is true. The words which are spoken suggest a spirituality of constantly attempting to earn God’s love, but the fervour of their spiritual life suggest that on a deeper level they are already convinced of the reality of that love.

Every morning our students attend mass and every evening they pray the rosary together, I don’t believe they are doing so because they think they will be punished if they don’t, they don't exhibit the angst to which such a spirituality would give birth. To some extent they pray out of habit but only partly. Most deeply I think they pray because they know how much they are already blessed; they know how much they are already fully alive. They might not be able to articulate it but they are living it.