91.5月23日配戴聖母聖衣－白孟德神父（Fr. Charles Belmonte Lopez）語錄-譯者:林豪

In this month of May we should increase our love for our Blessed Mother; one way to consider is the use of the scapular. There are people who criticize the scapular as a kind of talismanic devotion — failing to understand the scapular promise (“whoever dies clothed in this scapular shall not suffer the fires of hell”) as a way of persevering in the spiritual life.

在五月聖母月，我們應該加強對聖母的熱愛；我們可以考慮使用一種方法，就是配戴聖衣。有些人批評聖衣是一種對護身符的敬禮—聖衣的承諾（無論誰配戴著這件聖衣，在過世時，都不會遭受地獄之火）作為神修生活忠誠到底的一種方式，是毫無道理的。

Taken properly, as a sign of consecration to Christ through the maternal intercession of the Blessed Mother, the scapular can be a physical sign of the way in which, as John Paul II put it, “devotion to [Mary] cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions, but must become a ‘habit,’ that is, a permanent orientation of one’s own Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through frequent reception of the sacraments and the concrete practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”

如果要正確地理解，作為藉由聖母的代禱，奉獻給主基督的標誌，聖衣可以說是一種有形的標誌，正如聖若望·保祿二世所言：「對『聖母瑪利亞』的敬禮，不能僅限於在某些場合，為光榮她而祈禱及讚頌，而必須成為一種『習慣』，也就是說，藉由經常領受聖事和具體實踐精神和肉體事功的善行，將祈禱和內修生活交織在一起，以永久定立自己身為基督徒的行為。

St John Paul II added: “In this way the scapular becomes a sign of the ‘covenant’ and reciprocal communion between Mary and the faithful: indeed, it concretely translates the gift of his Mother, which Jesus gave on the Cross to John and, through him, to all of us, and the entrustment of the beloved Apostle and of us to her, who became our spiritual mother.”

聖若望保祿二世補充說道：「藉由這種方式，聖衣成為聖母瑪利亞和信友之間『盟約』和相互共融的標誌：事實上，它具體地傳述了祂母親的恩典，主耶穌在十字架上將祂的母親託付給聖若望，並藉由他託付給我們所有的人，並將心愛的宗徒和我們託付給她，使她成為我們屬靈的母親。」