The Devotion of the Soma Scapular: A Pamphlet From the Milieu of Dynamic Popular Piety
The Devotion of the Soma Scapular
A Pamphlet From the Milieu of Dynamic Popular Piety
Introduction
Devotion, Sacramentals, and Dynamic Popular Piety
Definition, Theology, and Investment of the Soma Scapular
Legitimacy
Investment and Practices
The Personal Symbology of My Soma Scapular
Introduction
From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.
-Galatians 6:17
The purpose of the pamphlet is to explore the legitimacy and associated practices of the Soma Scapular. The Soma Scapular is an act of dynamic popular piety in which a scapular is tattooed onto the body. In the first section, we will discuss scapular piety in general and draw a distinction between officially recognized popular piety and dynamic popular piety. In the second section, we will discuss the methods and dispositions concerning the investment and devotion of the Soma Scapular. In the last section, we will briefly discuss my own participation in the devotion of the Soma Scapular.
Devotion, Sacramentals, and Dynamic Popular Piety
Before we go into the details of the Soma Scapular, how it came about, and how to best practice the devotion, it will help to give a quick word about the officially approved devotions to the various scapulars that exist today. This devotion is quite recent, starting only in the 15th century. Those who wear it continually and piously are assured of salvation. The original and most popular scapular devotion is the devotion to the Brown Scapular. The devotion itself is said to derive from a vision of the Virgin Mary, wherein she gave Simon Stock the Brown Scapular and proclaimed its promise that, “all who die wearing the Scapular will not suffer the eternal flames of hell.”
To obtain the promise, the piece of cloth to be worn is accompanied by certain responsibilities. Apart from every other duty obligated by the faithful, the participant must pay special attention to observe the Ten Commandments and a daily prayer regime. They must attend Mass on days of obligation and regularly receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. Lastly, those invested must appropriately perform the duties of their state in life. With these attitudes and practices in play, wearing the scapular is a reminder of the ever flowing grace of God, and the help of the Church typified in its celestial form by the Virgin Mary. As a sacramental, it disposes one to cooperate with grace. It is an aid to fortitude, in that its presence is a constant physical reminder of one’s life of faith. Sacramentals “dispose to grace” as opposed to “dispensing grace”, which is the job of a sacrament proper. That said, it must be remembered that the scapular itself is not a “magic artifact” and participation in devotion is not participation in a sacrament. As Fr. Christian P. Ceroke, O. Carm notes in his article The Scapular Devotion,
The first affirmation of theologians concerning the Scapular promise of eternal salvation deals with the necessity of ruling out formalism in the practice of the devotion. Formalism is the physical wearing of the Scapular without sincere intent to serve God. The theological reason for ruling out formalism is that exterior acts of religion must be a reflection of one's interior mind and will if they are not to be hypocritical. The Scapular is merely a symbol having in itself no intrinsic power of grace.
With that understanding, it is important to recognize that there have been a host of approved scapulars over the past four centuries. These approved practices often derive from some sort of Marian apparition (though the historical nature of the original to Simeon in question). The approved scapulars also come with hierarchically authorized rubrics for official investment. These scapulars come with the certainty and weight of magisterial approval and thus the use of them offers the certainty of their promise through the promise of Christ. “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Taking that comfort as a valuable asset to the faithful, we can now begin to look at the Soma Scapular with an observation about certain attitudes that come with “approved devotions.” There seems to be an assumption on the part of some that since there are approved devotions, any other devotion is somehow anathematized by default. In The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, we are reminded that popular piety and popular devotion is not something that “happened”. Rather, it is a living fluid and adaptable aspect of the church. The scapular is a Marian Devotion and Pope Saint Paul VI reminds us of his intention for dynamism as he writes Marialis Cultus, “The development, desired by us, of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an indication of the Church's genuine piety.”
Thus there must be room for a flourishing of popular piety and devotion yet to be approved. This dynamic engagement properly takes place firmly within the hedge of orthodox Mariology. Dynamic popular piety is an important part of the Church's incarnational spirituality and a necessary aspect of inculturation of the gospel. It cannot be the case that only “approved” devotions are to be practiced, otherwise, there would never be approved devotions. Hence we can conceive of a two-tier system of sacramentals, popular piety, and devotion. One is approved, where the practitioner can study and be assured of orthodoxy, and the second is dynamic, where the devotion develops and expresses faith as it adapts in real time. In this second there is a chance for poorly formed theology, but there is also an opportunity for the development of practices that meet the deep need of the time and culture where they are developed. Neither tier is immune from lackluster, lackadaisical, or impious use. Thus either type can be absolutely ineffective.
The transition from dynamic to official devotion is a process. For example, most scapular devotions are catalyzed by private revelation of a mystical vision, usually involving the Virgin. With this genesis, it takes quite a while for such revelation to be spread, investigated, and approved. Along the way, there may be problematic aspects that are condemned and dropped. There could also be aspects that are acceptable but “not approved”, such as belief in the Sabbatine Privilege of the Brown Scapular.
The approval of a practice of popular piety or sacramental simply means it has been tried and found effective by those who utilize it with the proper attitude and cooperation with grace. That firm endorsement neither makes the sacramental or devotion automatically effective, nor exclusively effective. Thus one could read the following in The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
The imposition of the Scapular should be celebrated with "the seriousness of its origins. It should not be improvised. The Scapular should be imposed following a period of preparation during which the faithful are made aware of the nature and ends of the association they are about to join and of the obligations they assume"
And boldly proclaim, “See, no improvisation”, but that can only mean personal improvisation of what was approved if one wants the certainty that comes with approval. Again, once a formula is approved, it carries certain guarantees. If you deviate from that formula, you are not necessarily bereft of grace, only the guarantees by the institutional church. But since those guarantees come with a qualification of sincerity and beatitude on the part of the practitioner, it’s hard to imagine, in any theologically appropriate way, that God would absolutely deny someone with those qualities grace, regardless of their improvisations.
With this understood, it must be pointed out the Soma Scapular is not officially approved. It is an act of dynamic popular piety that at the time of this authorship is in an extremely fluid state of development. So what is the Soma Scapular, how did it come about, and how is one “invested” in its practice?
Definition, Theology, and Investment of the Soma Scapular
Legitimacy
The first question one may have is can tattoos be sacramentals? Well, it just so happens Mary Farrow wrote an article for Catholic New Agency conveniently titled, Can Tattoos be Sacramentals? While surprisingly amiable toward tattoos as expressions of spirituality, the initial answer was “no” for a few reasons.
First, a tattoo is not a “thing” like a scapular or a rosary. The article calls tattoos an image, though the article also immediately notes that an image is a thing, (for example, an Icon is a sacramental). Yet, for some reason, a tattoo is not a “thing” because it is an image. This reasoning seems to fall flat even as presented in the article itself. The problem seems to actually revolve the “medium” of the “thing” as an image. There is an understandable hesitancy to objectify the human body as a “thing”. The medium of an icon or an image on a scapular is not human flesh. Rather the elementals consist of auxiliary sacral matter. Auxiliary Sacral matter is any matter that is not “confluential sacral matter”, which are flour, wine, oil, water, used in sacramental rituals. Sacramental matter is easy to classify as “things”. The medium of tattoo art is ink and human flesh, and since sacramentals are part and parcel of how one goes about using auxiliary sacral matter, to classify the body, which is the corporeal temple, receptive sacral matter, and an extension of self as a “thing” is unsettling.
Yet, by that hesitancy, the argument inadvertently tends toward desacralizing the body and ignoring its status as both corporeal temple and receptive sacral matter. The body as the corporeal temple of the Holy Spirit is able to be sacredly adorned in all manner of significant ways. This certainly includes clothes, but can also include “body art” if, like any sacrament, such art symbolizes in an appropriate manner and is invested in with proper piety.
This plays into another reason that tattoos are seen as suspicious in the article, “They are not ‘intrinsically evil’ but they are wrong ways of treating our body,” [Fr. Luis Granados, D.C.J.M] said, even if a tattoo is religious in its image or messaging. “The problem of a tattoo is...we are misunderstanding the meaning of the body,” he said. “Our body is called to be accepted as a gift from God. We can heal what is sick, but we are called to accept our body, with its characteristics.” The suspicion seems to revolve around pain and self mutilation. This is a serious charge. Any docetic urge to discount the body as evil and in need of being punished into submission should be urgently avoided. Such spiritualities are harmful and have done great damage in the history of Christianity.
But we can also look for ways to reconcile what is seen as bodily mutilation with a somatic spirituality that is helpful and beautiful if done well. There is pain and wound involved in tattooing. But not as much perhaps as circumcision, which seemed to be required by the conservative factions of the early church. The exemption of circumcision for the gentiles did not equal prohibition of symbolic bodily adaptation that involved pain. Reading the letters of Paul, one sees clearly that the arguments there revolved around a cultural concern. One also sees that groups such as the Ebionites and the Judaizers were seeing circumcision as a powerful act “in and of itself” as opposed to what we might now call a “soma sacramental” which disposes one to grace as opposed to effects it. We might define a soma sacramental as a sacramental that symbolizes through embellishment of the body as fundamental sacral matter, that is, with an understanding of the corporeal temple and receptive sacral matter. This is as opposed to traditional sacramentals, which use auxiliary sacral matter.
As we shall see in the next section, with careful discernment it is possible to use such rituals as a channel of redemptive suffering. What is to be discouraged is a situation such as the early martyrs who were condemned for racing to death, or a spirituality of “anti-beauty” such as the Rose of Lima, who seemed to abuse the body because corporeal beauty was seen as troublesome. The process may be pain, but the end result of an act of soma sacramentality should be a celebration of beauty, or at least somehow appropriately symbolic such that one can be better disposed to healthy spirituality by means of it. But as we shall see, the evident dangers of misguided spiritualities does require much discernment.
There is also a hesitancy expressed in the article because of the nature of the changes made to the body. “Adornments of the body, such as makeup or nail polish, are different because they are not permanent changes to one’s body”. It is notable that “permanence” is attached to the practice of the traditional scapular as well. Theoretically, it is never to be removed. The permanent nature of both the wool and Soma Scapular is meant to reflect a permanent investment in a certain spiritual discipline and attitude. We can take as a parallel example circumcision, the proto soma sacramental, which is also permanent. As we noted it is not forbidden as either a health or spiritual practice for Catholics. It is only that if it is a spiritual practice, it must be culturally and spiritually appropriate. Thus, there does seem to be a precedent for permanent bodily alterations in order to symbolize spiritual realities as an aid to cooperation with grace. And on top of that, the fact of reality is that tattooing is less permanent than circumcision, because they can be removed by laser surgery (though hopefully a process of discernment for the acquisition of a soma sacramental would discount the need for such removal).
The next reason the idea of sacramental tattoos are discounted in the article is that “tattoos do not seem to imitate any other sacramental aspects of the Church, and they have not been set aside by the Church as sacramentals themselves.” This objection springs from the previous one and develops out of the downplay of the sacred nature of the baptized body. There are two points being made by this argument and both hinge on a very particular and “hierarchical/institutional” definition of “The Church”. The first is that tattoos are not seen as syncretistic with traditional or current church practice. Such an attitude in the extreme denies the essential nature of the body as corporeally significant by the three sacramental investments of baptism, ordination, and marriage. Each of these rituals is intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of the cosmos. Also, the attitude presented in this argument does not allow for the existence of dynamic popular piety. These practices as popular piety must be able to develop in historical and cultural contexts.
Thus, someone may say, tattoos as popular piety must be “culturally appropriate” and seek to forbid them, but culture is dynamic. I was raised in lower-middle-class rural Alabama. In the early ’80s tattoos were not appropriate in that culture. By the mid ‘90s they were acceptable and by the ‘10s they became a firm part of that culture. Tattoos are in fact reflective of the sacramental aspects of the church. In dynamic popular piety, well-executed, they take the corporeal temple and adorn it in such a way as to permanently symbolize interior pieties one has invested in. Admittedly this is a development from a “sacramental” as resting only in auxiliary sacral matter, to soma sacramentality, where the sacramental devotion is being attached to receptive sacral matter. These criticisms reflect a problem of semantics, not sacramentality. The body of the baptized priest signifies as it mediates and sacrifices. If that body uses adornment to symbolize interior realities in the process of this signification, that may not be a “sacramental” by the traditional definition, that is, it is not a material object of auxiliary sacral matter. But that does not negate its “sacramentality”.
So for our example, it is true, a Soma Scapular is not made of wool, it is only the “image” of a scapular. But the material it is made of is sacred. First, it is the material of a being made in the image and likeness of God. Second, The CNA article is mistaken, the material is deeply queued into the sacramental structure of the church because once we are baptized, our bodies are conformed to the church in order to effect our baptismal priesthood. This makes our bodies able to stand as alter Christus in the ritual system of the church. It was noted this in great detail in the former treatise The Manifold Priesthood of the Catholic Church. The body as receptive sacral matter can be particularly actualized by vocational sacraments, conforming them to signify in specific ways in the church. So the Christan Body can be nothing else but sacramental material since it is one of the very few instances of fundamental sacral matter.
The second objection was that the Catholic Hierarchy has not approved any tattoo sacramentals. But that is not to say that a nuptial dyarch or priest of baptism can’t begin an effective dynamic devotion working toward the status of an officially approved sacramental. Again, approval of one thing does not necessarily anathematize everything else. So by the end of the article, we come around to the flip side. The article reaches the conclusion that tattoos may in some way be considered sacramentals,
Sacramentals, used well, keep us close to the grace of Christ given to us in the seven sacraments, and receive their graces by the authority that Christ gives his bride, the Church, when she asks for his help. When the Church asks Christ for graces, He never refuses his bride,’ [Fr. Dobrozsi ] said. … tattoos could be “sacramentals” in a broader sense of the word. A permanent image, engraved on the skin, could certainly serve as a constant, physical reminder of our new life in Christ. The image of a rosary, a cross, or other sacramental on our skin could lead us frequently to pray, to desire the seven sacraments more, and to think and act in communion with the Church,” he said.
One can observe in this quote the struggle between “official” sacramentals and devotions, and the milieu of dynamic popular piety it takes to create them.
Investment and Practices
Are there prayers and practices associated with the Soma Scapular? This is a just question. After all, the first section of the pamphlet took pains to point out how exterior sacramentals are useless when they lack concert with Christian living and interior attitude. The short answer is “yes”. As we noted, the “material” of the sacramental is “soma”, that is, the corporeal temple as receptive sacral matter. Thus the Soma Scapular is deeply connected to the baptismal priesthood. We shall see this theme reiterated when we discuss the revelatory vision which sparked the devotion. As an investment in one’s baptismal priesthood, the Soma Scapular relates to how one personally mediates Christ as alter Christus and sacrifices in their life. This works according to all four modes of Christo-analogical interchange as related in The Manifold Priesthood of the Catholic Church.
The major practice of investment and acquisition is a clear and constant discernment of one’s life concerning their baptismal priesthood. This discernment is expressed by constant adapting development of how one mediates and sacrifices in one’s life. Finally, there is an assumption of sacrificial economy, that is to say, the participant is expected to consciously bring these mediations and sacrifices to the sacrifice of the mass to be bound to the Church through the collect of the officiating ordained priest. Thus the devotional practice of the Soma Scapular consists of the three Ds, Discern, Develop and Deliver. If one were to ask, “shouldn’t we be doing these things anyway?” the answer is, “yes”. But after answering I would point to the practices attached to the brown scapular as mentioned in the previous section and apply the same question for the same answer. These are sacramentals. They are meant to offer disposition toward cooperation with grace. Hence they don’t “do anything new”.
How is one invested with the Soma Scapular? Well, simply put, one is tattooed with it. Given the nature of the spirituality involved, the investment is self-applied, it is a dedication for life and an investment in pain (sacrifice). But the beginning of the process should involve a careful discernment, especially concerning one’s relationship with their body as receptive sacral matter and a corporeal temple. It is important to expose any possibility of dangerous masochistic self harm or disorder vanity one may be attaching to the process. One should be well versed in the spirituality of soma sacramentality. One will most likely need appropriate input from trusted friends or a spiritual director before deciding. Upon discerning desire for the Soma Scapular, one must first conceive of their life in Christ as one of his baptized priests in the broadest terms possible. Then one must decide how one wishes to be adorned so as to maximally encourage cooperation with one’s baptismal grace.
Once one has decided on their art, one must discern an investment intention. This intention is the sacrificial offering that one is going to attach to the pain of getting and healing the tattoo. The investment of the Soma Scapular is also an investment in redemptive suffering. The pain is an exercise of the body as receptive sacral matter. It signifies the communication of the disorder pain of the cosmological paradox, as reality struggles from Eden to the Eschaton. The meditation and sacrifice involved in this process focuses on the theodicy of “birth pains” as Paul describes it, as well as how the particular intent one has set manifests that pain in the cosmos. The investment itself is an act of sacrifice through the baptismal priest’s mode of alter Christus, via Paul’s injunction “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God,”. At the end of the process, there should be no more pain, only beauty, as a reminder that “all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” The investment in theodicy is what makes this act of willful suffering different that the self flagellation of a misguided monk who is simply trying to “discipline the flesh” because they perceive of it as evil.
One must go into the ritual with the intention fixed, meditate in the intention as an “experience of the pain”, and then consciously bring that intention to the altar of the next mass they attend. This is the ritual of “investment”. After the investment ritual, piety dictates that the practitioner practice the three Ds, discern, develop and deliver concerning the demands of their baptismal priesthood as we described in the treatise The Manifold Priesthood of the Catholic Church.
This spirituality and piety was one of the interpretive effects of a vision/dream I had, coupled with a long time of discernment concerning life experience. Any of the baptized could do the same, but how they manifest it would be different than mine. A nuptial dyarchy will mutually invest if they made that discernment for themselves. This piety is not bound by the rules of the hierarchy as of yet. Thus it’s practice offers no certainty except via the zeal with which one loves God and seeks him. But then again, isn’t that same attitude and discipline what makes effective the approved sacramentals and devotions?
Are there rules for how it is supposed to look? Given the extremely personal nature of this devotion, I would argue that the aesthetic requirements are extremely minimal. First does it even need to be an image of a scapular, draped over the shoulders? Well, it IS the devotion of the “Soma Scapular”, so another image would kind of need to be another approach to tattoo devotion, a different manifestation of soma sacramentality. I would say it at least needed to be the image of two patched, front and back, attached by a necklace. The patches should contain imagery that is suited to the participant, their life, their “person”, and especially their baptismal priesthood. Thus in order to invest, one should have enough life experience to pick symbols that last longitudinally or at least will bear changing interpretation well. Reflecting on how to structure these images and what they symbolize is a critical part of the discernment process for seeking investment in this sacramental.
But I would argue that exactly how it looks is extremely malleable, born out of a process of meditation, prayer, and life examination. If the person seeking the Soma Scapular is a dyarch but seeking solo investment (that is, their spouse is not investing with them), they will still want to include their spouse in their discernment process. It also seems to me that their status as such should play into the symbology of the scapular, much how if a consecrated person or a priest were invested, I would assume their community’s charism would play into it somehow.
Having noted the extreme malleability, I would add one visual “rule”. I would think that since this is a scapular devotion the primary (chest) image should be Mary. But again, this is an extremely personally shaped devotion, so the image of Mary chosen must be “Your Lady”. That is to say, one must choose an “Our Lady” appropriate to their scapular discernment process and life. It is fortunate that there are a seemingly infinite number of approved “Our Lady” titles and narratives to choose from. One can go with a widely recognized manifestation of Mary. For example, it happens that “my Lady” is Mount Carmel because, as we will see, I work with the Carmelites, and Carmelite spirituality plays a large role in my life. Or one can search through all of the multiple officially recognized, yet obscure titles for some specifically niche devotional investment. For example, no one had much heard of “our Lady undoer of knots” before Pope Francis pointed out the devotion. So, perhaps one is particularly invested in Holy Rest and encounters “Our Lady of Sunday”. Or one could explore their local culture for appropriate developing “as of yet” recognized manifestations of Mary. An example of this would be “Our Lady of the Amazon” of the recent Pan-Amazomnian Synod fame. Lastly, perhaps one has had one’s own vision, private revelation, dream, or even personally created artistic image one can invest in.
Why Mary? Because she is the mother of the church. As such she represents both paths of the Two Paths for Expanding True Love, married and celibate. She is the virgin mother. She is the summative example of a member of the church, one who utilizes their baptismal grace to perfectly effect an alter Christus. We gave a substantial reflection of Mary’s use of her baptismal priesthood (in this singular case the immaculate conception) in the treatise The Manifold Priesthood of the Catholic Church. Since the Soma Scapular is one of investment in baptismal priesthood and Mary’s immaculate conception is the effective fundamental example of that priesthood, she is uniquely tied to this spirituality. A dyarch can particularly relate to Mary as the mother of a church, as they may be a parent of a domestic church. Or a dyarch can relate to Mary as a spouse, who must cooperate with their partner in bringing forth the Kingdom. As the ever virgin she is an exemplar for all manner of celibate life in the church. So no matter which state of life one chooses to exercise in the church Mary is the church for that person. As Pope Saint Paul VI stated in Marialis Cultus
The Virgin Mary has always been proposed to the faithful by the Church as an example to be imitated, not precisely in the type of life she led, and much less for the socio-cultural background in which she lived and which today scarcely exists anywhere. She is held up as an example to the faithful rather for the way in which, in her own particular life, she fully and responsibly accepted the will of God (cf. Lk. 1:38), because she heard the word of God and acted on it, and because charity and a spirit of service were the driving force of her actions. She is worthy of imitation because she was the first and the most perfect of Christ's disciples. All of this has a permanent and universal exemplary value.
So the Virgin’s involvement is not simply a “cute scapular tradition”, it is deeply integrated in the meaning of the Soma as a medium for sacrifice, mediation, and the corporeal temple. She is also deeply significant of the baptismal priesthood, the underpinning spirituality of the Soma Scapular. After that, I would offer absolute artistic and significant license to the participant assuming proper piety and reflective theological symbology. The back patch needn’t be a saint (as mine is) it could be anything the participant deems appropriately significant. It needn't be a particular size, which will most likely be determined by how much detail the participant will want to include. In almost every way, the discernment process is the rubric for visual presentation of the Soma Scapular. That said, in the last section I will briefly discuss my own manifestation of the Soma Scapular, simply as an exemplar and because, let’s face it, people like to talk about their tattoos.
The Personal Symbology of My Soma Scapular
To begin I would start by pointing out that my experience of the Soma Scapular does generate via a visionary experience. This experience was a dream. Here the reader will remember that somnium spirituality is an operative reality for the author and that the Bible makes little distinction between the waking and dream worlds when discussing visions as instruments of divine communication. So to begin, here is the dream;
Once I had a dream,
I was standing before a side altar in a church. It was one alter among many that lined the sides of the Church. The altars resembled grotto and their connection formed a line of arched porticos extending as far as the eye could see. They were stone. The room’s lighting was dark, and the effect it had was that the interiors of all the other altars were darkened so that you could not see what was in the others, only into the one in front of you.
I was dressed in my summer uniform, that is, casually and comfortably in a way that I would be dressed at home as opposed to how I would dress for work or church, where I dress more professionally and “by the book”. But my dress was a little more noticeably stylized than in real life. I was wearing my sunglasses, and hat though I was inside and it was dimly lit. There was also an ornate “situation” around my upper chest, shoulders, and back that was hard to describe.
The altar I was standing at was very ornate and decorated with plants and growth. It was and altar where holy oils were kept. It was somehow my job to care for the oils. In the process of ministering at the altar, I tipped the oil (accidentally?) and it spilled all over my crotch leaving a stain.
Certain religious authorities from my professional life (one particular to my job, one more archdiocesan / hierarchical pop conservative) were there helping at the church and when they saw the stain they seemed concerned. I was also concerned, but not at the stain itself. My concern was that their judgment would hinder who I was and my part to play at this altar. I knew I was supposed to be there, but their misguided attempt to instill shame and “cause talk” could lead to me not being able to do what I needed to do at this altar.
--April 2017
Now this dream is one of many that affect my life long term. If the reader of the various SNSL documents is minimally versed in dream interpretation, they can easily see the influence of this dream on such works as Two Paths for Expanding True Love, Ecclesiological Orientation, Rule of the Garsidian Domestic Church, A Diarchic Sex Manual and may others. All of them have a strong investment in the ministry and proper authority of lay life, married life, the domestic church, and the priesthood of baptism. And as has been made obvious so far, these are proper modes of expression and investment in the Soma Scapular.
The short interpretation breaks down symbolically thusly. The altars holding anointing oils are the tables of the baptismal priesthood, hence one only has access to their own. To exercise one’s baptismal priesthood is a personal exercise. Though it effects the church, as practiced it is not an operation of the universal church. Thus the main altar did not play into the dream, only these side altars, which indicate that what is happening in the dream concerns personal religious concerns.
The anointing of the genitalia seems a fairly obviously a symbol of dyiarchic and procreative investment. This leads to my altar being more particularly interpreted as the altars of my domestic church. The criticism of the “officials” there seems to relate discomfort between the domestic church as authoritative (anointed according to a certain manner that is misinterpreted as scandalous: sex and sexuality) and the more institutional clerical and consecrated aspects of the church.
The comfortable dress is what is worth focusing on most when considering the Soma Scapular. I have three “uniforms” in my possession. They are my work/church clothes which are middle of the road working class professionals, my dress clothes (suits) for formal occasions, and my home uniforms (summer and winter). The latter leans a little more bohemian, alternative, and marginal. It was my home uniform that I was dressed in, but “stylized”. This dress situates me in the mode of my life that is most intimate. It indicates the importance of the dream rests on things that happen outside of formality in the sphere of what we may call “my life in its most raw aspects and locations”. There was something around my upper torso. It wasn’t a scapular per se, but what it was is hard to explain. From it, I began to discern the devotion of the Soma Scapular. I see my personal investiture in the piety of the Soma Scapular as related to (or reveled in) this dream.
My Soma Scapular is black and grey. The front bears the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the back bears the image of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The pictures are icons, one of each saint. They are large (by scapular reckoning) because I wanted my images to bear a lot of detail. I also used the process of reception as an exercise of trust. I am not an artist, but I am controlling. Part of my redemptive suffering was to let go of control concerning the fine details of the scapular to the tattoo artist. I made sure what needed to be present for the symbolic effect was present, the rest of the style was gifted to me. I definitely discerned a meditation of redemptive suffering personal to me to take with me to the investiture ritual and delivered my sacrifice to the following mass.
I picked these images for several reasons. First, there are simply two saints because the lives and hagiography of the saints has always played a large role in my life. It is a morning practice of mine to read all of the Saints of the Day, of which there are many. I take great comfort in the fact that we have companions and helpers, not only unbeknownst to us, but beyond where we could ever be at present.
The spiritualities of both the Jesuits and the Carmelites invest in a model of contemplation in action. The Carmelite spirituality of finding God in the little way of everyday experience is perfectly complemented by the Jesuit incarnational spirituality. I feel that both of these reflect my investment in my baptismal priesthood, the relinquishing of grandiosity that was necessary for Ignatius of Loyola, The little flower, and the Carmelites as they were exiled from Israel and France in order to reach New Orleans where I encountered them.
Both I and my spouse went to a Jesuit college. There I garnered an undergraduate degree in theology and philosophy (minor history). I then went to a different Jesuit university where I received a master’s degree in religious studies. These educational experiences left an indelible mark on my theological and intellectual outlook. The Parish my domestic church attends is a Jesuit parish, and we are all still deeply involved in Jesuit spirituality. These are the basic reasons for my gratitude and devotion to this great saint and the reasons that I named my son after him (among other Ignatius’s).
The front of my Soma Scapular is Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The middle name of both of my daughters are Marian in nature. I definitely relate to Mary as a parent and spouse. I have long had a deep, and sometimes hidden from me, relationship to the Carmelites. From the graduate course I took on Saint John of the Cross, to the holy card of the Little Flower I pasted on my acoustic bass guitar, to my wearing of the brown scapular (even before investment) since I was a teenager, the collective ethos of the Carmelites has been present in my life. I have long worked in a Carmelite school teaching religion. If I ever leave, I cannot imagine that the impact made on me there will not last the rest of my life. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is “my Lady”.
Both of these traditions involve deep cognition and deep mysticism. My encounter with the Jesuits began with cognition and then I found their mystical side. My experience of the Carmelites was mystical first, then I encountered the reflection of that mysticism in a cognitive framework. I definitely see my life as in motion from a cerebral Ignation mode of religious experience to an experiential, intuitive, and accepting mode of religious experience, typified by the Carmelites and Mary, thus when I walk, my body symbolizes as I move forward the journey rom cognition toward intuition as the symbols on my body.
Both of these traditions go back to roots in order to bring a newness to the faith. The Carmelites were the only order to be founded in the Holy land during the crusades and they trace their spiritual lineage back to the prophet Elijah. Yet at the same time, their little way is an investment in the ordinary that is fresh and new for a church that often looks elsewhere. Ignatius also made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. From that pilgrimage, he maneuvered into a reinvestment in Catholicism that adapted the terrain of spirituality set by the reformation and counter reformation.
From the Jesuit missionary methodology to Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s geographically invested manifestation, I see each of these saints as expressing an incarnational spirituality, open to dynamic acculturation, geared toward concern toward the vulnerable, longing for the spread of the gospel of freedom and joy of Christian Love. All of these speak to my goals for how I effect my baptismal priesthood and how I live my life.
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