Can a religious (not a nun) woman wear a habit?

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veil
vāl/Submit
noun
1.
a piece of fine material worn by women to protect or conceal the face.
“a white bridal veil”
synonyms: mask, scarf, kerchief, head covering, headdress; More
verb
1.
cover with or as though with a veil.
“she veiled her face”
synonyms: envelop, surround, swathe, enfold, cover, conceal, hide, screen, shield, cloak, blanket, shroud; More
 
Are you aware that Catholics may use words differently than the secular world might?
 
“heythere said:
I think “frumpy” is subjective. What’s “frumpy” for one is not for another. Modesty: not showing too much skin or drawing attention to yourself in an intentionally sexually manner. I wear long skirts and long sleeved blouses with plain-colored vests or oversized sweaters. Too the common woman, I guess that would be “frumpy”.
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Modesty, in Catholic theology, does not pertain merely to not being sexually provocative. It affects other matters, including behavior, dress in the sense of blending in, etc.
 
SerraSemper said:
Frumpy is not virtuous. It is immodest
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Frumpy is in the eye of the beholder. I’m sure somebody out there thinks I look frumpy. Others probably think I look okay. I’m certainly not going to worry that someone thinks I’m immodest because my dress isn’t stylish enough, sheesh.
 
One other thing to add here is that many of us in USA grew up seeing nuns wearing stuff that looked like plain street clothes. Habits, except maybe among the cloistered nuns that few of us ever saw, were not the norm for decades. The vast majority of nuns I knew in my school dressed similarly to the lay teachers. There were about three elderly nuns in a habit and only a couple who wore a short veil. The rest had nothing to distinguish them outwardly as nuns except a cross around their neck.

I realize habits are now making a bit of a comeback, but they are still not commonly seen.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’m certainly not going to worry that someone thinks I’m immodest because my dress isn’t stylish enough, sheesh.
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Saint Francis de Sales:
Always be neat, do not ever permit any disorder or untidiness about you. There is a certain disrespect to those with whom you mix in slovenly dress; but at the same time avoid all vanity, peculiarity, and fancifulness. As far as may be, keep to what is simple and unpretending–such dress is the best adornment of beauty and the best excuse for ugliness.
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Indeed, modesty is a very reaching virtue in terms of keeping it. The word that was used in examinations of conscience was slovenliness or carelessness that called attention to oneself by an appearing at one extreme or the other of how one dressed and carried oneself
 
SerraSemper said:
Modesty, in Catholic theology, does not pertain merely to not being sexually provocative. It affects other matters, including behavior, dress in the sense of blending in, etc.
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Alas, this concept of modesty in all its richness seems more and more being lost today – with the result that modesty is given far too narrow of a meaning.
 
Catholics also uses words in the secular sense, too. What’s in the Catechism about the definition of “veiling”? I’m not being snarky, just wondering if you knew. Please don’t judge me based on how I dress or whether I meet your criteria for what “modesty” is. I know it’s more than how you dress. This posting was about clothing, originally.
 
heythere said:
Saint Francis of Assisi wore a beggar’s robe, so…
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Because of the provision in his Rule concerning an absolute poverty in a time of great richness as a prophetic sign.

Ultimately, that level of poverty was rejected by the Popes after the death of Francis. It was not sustainable because of the burden that it placed particularly upon the Particular Churches.

Are you actually asserting that you are in the circumstance and under the divine mandate as was Saint Francis of Assisi?
 
no. it was quoted that we should be neat and tidy, I mentioned that Saint Francis of Assisi was not neat and tidy. Stop trying to get offended. NONE of us are in the same league and the Blessed Saint Francis of Assisi.
 
yes. and there are Franciscan nuns, too. Not my point, though. A robe = two rectangular pieces of cloth with sleeves and a belt, usually. Nobody owns the right to wear that. I was trying to be sensitive at first, now I don’t care. I will not now, nor ever, TRY to look like a specific order of nuns. IF, however, I am mistaken for a nun, I will politely tell them I am not and move on. I was not put on this Earth to worship God through pleasing all men (people). I couldn’t do that if I tried. Offense or not, I will wear a simple bit of sewing and a headscarf, and if others are “offended” by this, perhaps it is their judgement that must be evaluated. I will live for God, as we are all trying to do, I’m sure. God Bless.
 
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heythere said:
yes. and there are Franciscan nuns, too. Not my point, though. A robe = two rectangular pieces of cloth with sleeves and a belt, usually. Nobody owns the right to wear that. I was trying to be sensitive at first, now I don’t care. I will not now, nor ever, TRY to look like a specific order of nuns. IF, however, I am mistaken for a nun, I will politely tell them I am not and move on. I was not put on this Earth to worship God through pleasing all men (people). I couldn’t do that if I tried. Offense or not, I will wear a simple bit of sewing and a headscarf, and if others are “offended” by this, perhaps it is their judgement that must be evaluated. I will live for God, as we are all trying to do, I’m sure. God Bless.
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Saint Francis was most concerned about being in faithful obedience with the Church in EVERYTHING – which is why he went to Rome to present to the Holy Father his Rule as well as what he was doing with the Order of Friars Minor…prepared to change anything because he preferred the will of ecclesiastical authority to all else.
 
I am trying to be faithful to God. To please God. Which would please God more: a robe or a blouse?

I don’t know, either.
 
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heythere said:
Which would please God more: a robe or a blouse?
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Such a question is one of those moments when I simply stop the conversation, get up from my desk, walk the person to the door of the chancery, make a note that this person is not to be granted another appointment…with a memo to whoever is their parish priest.
 
You have changed your original post several times. The original question you asked was whether it was okay to wear a religious habit. And the response is NO. What is modest and appropriate and not frumpy is going to be highly dependent on your state in life, what you are doing at a particular moment, etc. Pope John Paul II wore shorts hiking in the mountains. Appropriate for hiking but not for saying Mass in the cathedral. Wearing tattered rags at a wedding is not appropriate (unless you are a beggar at the church door and that’s all you’ve got); hence all the parables Christ used in proper attire. Frumpy is not appropriate ever because frumpy by definition means it is out of place, wherever the “place” is. Frumpy is by conscious choice and decision whereas a beggar’s rags are not frumpy but appropriate for their situation in life.

You also ask whether the Catechism talks about veiling. No it doesn’t. The internet fad at the moment is to talk about the practice of women wearing mantillas as “veiling”. Wearing a mantilla isn’t dignified in official Church lexicons as “veiling”. Veiling properly speaking happens for weddings and the consecrations of women in a form of consecrated life. Hence the ancient title of the ceremony that made me a bride of Christ was often called the “veiling of virgins”.
 
Don Ruggero is Ordained Clergy. Don Ruggero is talking about the Rule St Francis lived under. The Religious Rule
 
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heythere said:
I am trying to be faithful to God. To please God. Which would please God more: a robe or a blouse?

I don’t know, either.
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That is a great question. Let us go to Samuel.

But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

In the end, obeying God is better than stuff we do, though the stuff we do is beautiful and brings our minds closer to God. However, there are times we are called to go against what we want to do. Wear whatever you want, that is acceptable to your priest. Even if somethings may be denied, there will be plenty of options. I have no doubt there is something that will help you focus on your state of life and desire for simplicity that will not cause any one confusion.

Oh, and what a great problem to have!
 
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