The Adoration of the Sacred Head of Christ as the Seat of Divine Wisdom, the crowning and perfection of all devotions

On April 27th 1880, Teresa Higginson wrote in a tone of triumph and in a trembling hand as though still half rapt in ecstasy:

“Our divine Lord says the time is at hand when the Wisdom of the Father shall be adored and the Love of God for man shall be revealed in the Light which shineth in darkness and enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. It is the Will of our dear Blessed Lord that His Sacred Head be adored as the Seat of Divine Wisdom: not the Sacred Head alone, (I mean as we worship His sacred Hands and Feet) no, but the Head as the shrine of the powers of the Soul and the faculties of the Mind and in these the Wisdom which guided every affection of the Sacred Heart and motions of the whole Being of Jesus our Lord and our God. It is not His divine Will that the attributes or abstracts of the soul or mind, or that divine Wisdom which guided, governed and directed all in Him (the God Man) should have a distinct worship, but that they should all be specially honoured and His sacred Head adored as their Temple. And our dear Blessed Lord has shown me too how the head is also the centre of all the senses of the body, and that this devotion is the completion, not only of the devotion of the Sacred Heart, but the crowning and perfection of all devotions; and He showed me how the adorable Trinity at His baptism revealed to the world this special devotion, for His Sacred Humanity is the tabernacle of the thrice holy Trinity; and that St. John had specially spoken of this devotion for the Most High revealed to him that he should be thus worshipped before the end of the world, and he spoke of it as a magnificent city, etc. seeing the multitudes of variety and beauty and splendour of this Seat of divine Wisdom. It is a world of infinite magnitude, a sea of fathomless depths, a never setting sun of light inaccessible and immeasurable heights of untold mysteries of perfection and beauty. Our dear Blessed Lord did not positively state the precise time that this should be made a public devotion but He gave me to understand that whoever should venerate His sacred Head in this manner should draw down on themselves the choicest gifts of Heaven; and those who shall try by words or means to hinder or reject it shall be as glass that is cast down, or as an egg that is thrown to the wall, that is that they shall be shattered and become as naught, and shall be dried up and wither as grass on the housetop.

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The Image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Green Cloth

The Green Scapular or Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is, like the Miraculous Medal, a gift of our Blessed Mother to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
On November 27, 1839, Justine Bisqueyburu, destined by Providence to make known this devotion, enters the Seminary, or Novitiate of the Daughters of Charity, 140 rue du Bac, Paris. On January 28, 1840, during her first retreat, the young Sister was favored with a celestial vision. Our Lady appeared to her clothed in a long white robe over which hung a bright blue mantle. Her hair, which fell loosely over her shoulders, was not covered with a veil, and in her hands she held her Heart, from the top of which issued brilliant rays. To the dignity of her bearing was joined the dazzling brightness of celestial beauty. The young Sister, seized with admiration and fear, could scarcely repress an exlamation.
The same apparition was repeated four or five times during her Seminary on the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin. This favor seemed to have no other end than to increase in the Sister herself tender devotion to Mary Immaculate.
Clothed with the habit, Sister Bisqueyburu was sent to Blangy and shortly after her arrival, September 8, 1840, feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, she was favored during prayer with an apparition of the Mother of God, who held in her right hand her heart surrounded by flames, and in her left a sort of scapular, consisting of a single piece of green cloth suspended from a cord of the same color. On one side was a picture of the Blessed Virgin as she had shown herself in the apparitons; on the other, a Heart all inflamed with rays more brilliant than the sun, and clearer than crystal.
This Heart pierced with a sword was surrounded by an oval inscription, surmounted by a cross. The inscription read: "Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death." At the same time an interior voice revealed to the Sister the meaning of this vision. She understood that this new Scapular, through the medium of the Sisters of Charity, would contribute to the conversion of theose who have no faith, and above all, procure for them a happy death, and that it sould be distributed immediately with confidence.
For various reasons the execution was long delayed, in consequence of which the Blessed Virgin in serveral apparitions between 1840 and 1846 complained to the Sister. As obstacles were removed, the Scapular was distributed, producing wonderful conversions and some bodily cures.
Among favors obtained are the following: A sick man, a declared enemy of all religion, was thrown into frenzy by the mere sight of a priest. He accepted a Green Scapular on September 19, 1842. Eleven days later, arising from dinner, he withdrew into an adjoining room, fell on his knees and took out his Scapular which he called an intermediary agent. Kissing it and bathing it with tears, he promised Our Lady to go to Confession within a week. That delay seemed too long, for the next day he received the Sacraments.
In 1844, a child of fourteen with depaved morals received the Scapular and in a few days his conversion was affected.
At Constantinople a Greek schismatic was converted by the Scapular and also cured of a hideous leprosy. Many similar examples might be cited.

The manner of using the Scapular was indicated by the Blessed Virgin. Since it is not the badge of a confraternity but simply a double image attached to a single piece of cloth and suspended from a cord, the formalities of a Scapular are not required for the Benediction and Imposition. It suffices that it be blessed by a priest and worn by the one for whom it is intended. It may be placed in the clothing, on the bed, or simply in the room. The only prayer to be recited is the inscirption surrounding the Heart on the reverse of the Scapular: "Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death." This should be repeated daily, if not by the one wearing it, by the one giving it. The Scapular may be distributed everywhere. Although wonderful graces are attached to it, they are proportionate to the confidence with which it is given, as signified by the rays of different lengths which in the last apparitions, issued from the hands of the blessed Virgin.
The Green Scapular was twice approved by Pope Pius IX, in 1863, and again in 1870 when he said: "Write to these good Sisters that I authorize them to make and distribute it."

An exact account of any conversion or cure which may be attributed to the Green Scapular should be sent to Marian Center, Saint Joseph Central House, Emmitsburg, Maryland, with all circumstances of time, place and persons. Names should not be withheld under pretext of humility, for there is question of the glory of God and of His Holy Mother.

Nihil Obstat: E. A. Cerny, S.S., S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimator: Francis P. Keough, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore
Feast: Immaculate Heart of Mary, August 22, 1950

Among Mary's Gifts - The Green Scapular

By Robert A. Macdonald, C.Ss.R., written 1948

It is my conviction, that despite all the wars, the threats and the horror of Communism, we are living in the happiest of centuries. Never since the days that she taught the Infant Jesus to pray has the Mother of God been closer to the earth. We are living in the Age of Mary. Countless signs show us that she has come down from the Galilean hills of heaven to give us a new Bethlehem, a reborn Christ in the hearts of men. Germany, Italy, Portugal and France have been singularly blessed by her gentle presence. From all sides witnesses spring up to attest with wondrous proofs, her presence among us. She is walking on the earth!
However, there is a dark side to the picture today, the darkness of the beast. He prowls to trample and destroy. Never has he been so apparent. His time is growing short. No one knows better than he. He has never forgotten the prophecy in the garden: "I will put enmitites between thee and the woman... she shall crush thy head" (Gen. 3:15).
He realizes well what the coming of Mary means to him and his empire. God alone knows the furious activity of hell, the rage with which it strives to make this world a madhouse of hate. How he must hate the tender Virgin as she journeys from country to country. His power has been so great that he thought God had abandoned the world because of its unbelief. He was hopeful of finally conquering the world, of snatching souls from the nail-scarred Hands of Christ. Then came Lourdes, then Fatima and, today, the Mother of God sitting at the bedside of a sick world.
For years he has succeeded in hiding the beautiful devotion of her Immaculate Heart in the Green Scapular. I am sure that most of you have heard of this matchless devotion only lately. Yet the good Sister to whom it was revealed died over forty years ago. This is not surprising. See how well the evil spirit hid the marvels of Fatima although Our Lady's power flamed in the heavens before fifty thousand men and women.
Let me tell you the stroy of how I discovered the Green Scapular. This is my only way of trying to spread a true and tender love to her Immaculate Heart and of paying my debt to her. Seven years ago, before penicillin was in use, I was lying in a hospital very ill with pneumonia. I began to hemorrhage and the doctors decided to operate as a last resource. Then a little nun came into my room.
"Father, have you great faith in the Mother of God, especially in her Immaculate Heart? If so, you can be cured."
"How, Sister?"
"Through the Green Scapular."
"What is that?"
"Four years ago, Father, I was operated on for cancer. I was so filled with it, that they just closed me up and sent me away to die. Then I prayed to Our Lady of the Green Scapular; grew tired of waiting to die and came back to work. I am cured, Father. Do you want me to give you a Scapular?"
"Please, Sister."
With that she put one over my head. A feeling of tremendous confidence poured into me and the bleeding stopped. Two days later, in the X-ray rooom, they asked me when the hemorrhage had ceased. When I replied that it was a matter of a couple of days, they expressed great surpriese.
"Your have a wound that is six months healed and there is no other mark." Today even the scars are gone. No wonder I speak of an unpayable debt to her Immaculate Heart. Since then I have done everything possible to foster this devotion. To my great joy and amazement, those to whom I have spoken of the Green Scapular have become more zealous than I. Never have I seen the equal of the faith and confidence of these new apostles of Mary. The tremendous fervor of the crusades must have been like it.
During May I aksed the rector of St. Patrick's, Toronto, for permission to speak of it at the Wednesday devotions. I had a thousand Green Scapulars on hand, but no one thought that more than thirty would be asked for. The thousand were gone the first morning. The room where we distributed them was so jammed that I fearded someone would be injured. The rest of the day I was besieged on all sides for more. Foolishly, I showed the one I had for myself and it was quickly snatched from my hand.
The spirit in Toronto today is beyond belief. Ten thousand more have been too few. Over twenty-five priests have come to our monastery begging for scapulars. I have been stopped on the streets and accosted on trains by total strangers asking where these Scapulars could be obtained. Montreal has since shown a like fervor.
I am stunned at the response. I have no explanation for it. Certainly it was not due to the simple little sermon that I preached. I believe the explanation of it was given by a priest with all the simplicity of the priesthood: "She wants her heart loved."
Those who doubted in the beginning are today the most devoted to the Green Scapular. It has become something priceless. They love to say the beautiful prayer which we learned from Mary's lips:
"Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death."
Toronto today is feeling the warmth of that heart. A man, who had refused for years to see a priest, remained adamant on his deathbed. One of the family brought the Scapular into his room, said the prayer twice and, suddleny out of a clear sky, he begged for a priest.
I must insist that the peculier power of this Scapular is that of conversion. To bring her Son into the hearts of men. To give Him a new birth there. Although there are many cures like my own, I repeat, her greatest desire is to give her Son birth in the cradle of your soul.

The Green Scapular is the story of Sister Justine Bisqueyburu. An orphan in early life, she was adopted by a wealthy relative who left her his fortune. Her greatest day of joy was November 27, 1839, when she entered the novitiate of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent of Paul in Paris. Her Sisters in religion are stationed in Maryland. Address: Sisters of Charity, Central House, Emmitsburg, Maryland.
They can tell you much better than I the story of a Sister who inspired love and emulation in everyone who met her. One who was a confidante of Peope Pius IX in the dark days preceding his imprisonment in the Vatican; one who was the admiration of the Mohammedans of North Africa; the recipient of the flattering imitation of the famous Florence Nightingale on the battlefields of the Crimea. They can tell you the great efforts she made to keep her identity unknown; how her secret was revealed. How the Green Scapular found its way to the desk of Pope Pius XI. They will repeat the description of the Mother of God, standing in all her beauty before the young novice, and returning again und again until the Scapular was made and distributed. Telling the young Sister that the Scapular could be blessed by any priest, carried or worn on the person, even left in one's room, the only obligation being to say, once a day (and this can be said in favor of another): "Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death."

(The above article was published in the Madonna Magazine, August 1948, and was copied with permission by the Quarterly Bulletin of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Agony. March, 1949. It also appeared in Fatima Findings, September, 1949, published by the Reparation Society of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Baltimore, Maryland.)