The Blue Scapular Prayer Book

36 that devotion towards Her cannot be limited to prayers and acts of respect in her honor in particular circumstances, but it must constitute a “HABIT,” that is, a permanent guiding rule of one’s Christian behavior, interwoven with prayer and an interior life, by means of frequent reception of the Sacraments and the actual performance of spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way the scapular becomes the sign of a “bond” and of a reciprocal intimate spiritual relationship between Mary and the faithful. Indeed, it interprets in a concrete way the entrustment that, on the cross, Jesus made to John, and in him, to all of us, of his Mother, and the commitment of the beloved apostle and of us, to Her, appointed to be our spiritual Mother. The scapular is directly linked to the contemporary Marian spirituality promoted by St. John Paul II. As such, it it focused on devotion, trust, and dedication to the Mother of God. It was Pope Pius XII who pointed to this element when on the 700th anniversary of the existence of the scapular he addressed a letter to the Carmelite Fathers in which he wrote: “Dedication is the contemporary form of Marian devotion. ... Your scapular is a sign of dedication to Mary.”