I do love to see a cornet.
Wonderful for custody of the eyes, etc. I think they will return, God willing, as time goes by and more and the rebellious generations that rejected so much pass away.
A habit is a great sign of the Lord’s presence in the world, in this time where the devil is trying to force Christianity from the public sphere it is all the more needed.
Priests, nuns, all everywhere set aside their religious garb for worldly clothing. The outward sign of what was going on interiorly in so many of their hearts.
The obedient care of a habit is part of the acts of daily labor which can be offered up to God for souls. Many people forgot that such labor is of value before God, and thought, ‘we should have easier habits to take care of.’ They did not know the value of what they had, or they disdained it, and so they lost it.
But the children of know it. It is good. It will return.
May you have a blessed Christmas season and Happy New Year too I pray.
I don’t see the cornet coming back, because the Daughters drive. It is dangerous to drive with it. We are seeing the return of veils though.
It’s not the care of the habit that is the problem. It’s the time that it took many sisters to put together everytime they did laundry. Today’s simpler habits as we see worn by the Daughters of Mary, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, the Sisters of Life are easier to maintain and are still very recognizable as religious habits. These habits you just wash and wear. There is not much to taking care of them.
As far as the cornet is concerned, it was not abandoned because of rebellion, but because the Daughters adopted a short veil. That was more practical for maintenance and as I said, for driving. Prior to the 20th century, people didn’t drive. In the early part of the 20th century, most women didn’t drive. They didn’t operate machinery either. Today the Daughters drive and they work in many hospitals with all kinds of medical equipment that was not around 75 years ago. A more compact habit is very much in keeping with what Perfectae Caritasis asked for, “practical and appropriate for the apostolate.”
It’s like the habits of men. The simple primitive Franciscan habit that most of us wear is much more practical than the Franciscan habit that was adopted in the 1700s. Our original habit was very much like what we have adopted today. For example our Franciscan Brothers of Life wear a grey tunic with a capuche attached to the tunic, a chord and a tau. Immediately after the French Revolution the friars regrouped, after having been dispersed, and adopted a habit that was not only different from our original habit, but was the least practical thing anyone would want to wear. It had 12 pleats in the front and 12 more in the back. These had to ironed in each time you did laundry. It had a shoulder cape that came down to the elbows but was narrow and did not allow you to stretch you arms, so you had to keep tugging it up to raise your arms. It also had a very tiny capuche that was very impractical, because it did not cover your head when it got cold, which was the original purpose of the capuche. You had to wear a mantle (cape), because you could not get your sleeves into a coat due to the shoulder cape.
Returning to the simple one piece grey tunic without pletes and an attached capuche without a shoulder cape fits our work and the circumstances of today much better. In the winter you can wear a sweater or coat over it and in the warmer climates it actually keeps us cool.
The other addition that was made to our habit were shoes. Originally, Franciscans were discalced. Shoes were worn by monks, not friars. There was an attempt to make us look more like monks, so the shoes were added. They were later made optional during the Leonine reformation of the Franciscan order. Mandatory shoes are a pain in the neck, because we take off our shoes or sandals to enter the chapel. When you have sandals you just slip in and out of them.
Another addition that had been made during the 1700s were the monastic sleeves. These weer wide sleeves so that you could hide your hands by crossing them in front of you inside the sleeves.
The new habit of the reform, which is not the new habit, but actually the habit of the 1200s, has narrow sleeves. The reason for the narrow sleeves was that the friars did manual labor in the fields. The narrow sleeves did not get caught on things or get in the way of the work, because you could roll them up and they stayed put.
That’s just an example two religioius families: the Daughters and the Franciscans. Other communities also underwent changes in their habits . Since most religious families orginated in Europe, they were affected by these movements and events. The religious families founded in the USA, Asia, Africa and Latin America have always had simpler habits
The orders that were started in Italy and Spain usually had simpler habits. Once they got to France, they were redesigned and made complicated. Today, you can still see a French Fanciscan habit if you visit the Franciscan University or St. Francis University. They are run by the TORs who still wear the French Franciscan habit.
The Daughters not only had a cornet, but they too had pletes in their skirts and a rather large white collar that was starched and came down to their waist. When they redisigned it, long before Vatican II, mid 1950s, they exchanged it for a blue habit and veil, without the cornet, pletes and starched collar. It was a very simple habit, easy to maintain and practical, especially for nursing and other medical work, not to mention driving as I said before.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
the horror, and the NERVE of these sisters. Statistics show, that Orders that wear habits, have more younger, and older vocations, and have a higher population than those without the habit. I love the habit, and I wish some orders interpreted the documents of the Second Vatican Council correctly. The documents never said to institute altar girls. Neither did they say to remove Altar rails. Sorry to go off topic (I do that alot). But, I much rather a Nun or Sister in traditional habit, Priest in Clerics or a Cassock, and during mass with the proper Vestments (not some tie-dye hippy creation that he made out of some of his old rags, which you wouldn’t be surprised to find in the sixties
) and Brothers and Monks in habit. God bless you all now! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and Advent, and I would like to wish you a glorious New Year!