Nuns and Outward Appearances

  • Thread starter Thread starter miniquedoes
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I can only speak for myself and I don’t want to be critical in any way, of orders or communities who allow the wearing of civilian clothes, makeup and jewelry.

In my humble opinion, when one enters religious life they are ending their life in “the world” and I personally believe that their appearance should reflect this.
I am in favor of full habits not necessarily to the floor, but ankle length and of course with a veil. Makeup, jewelry(save for a watch and ring of final profession) and nail polish have no place in religious life.
I do not object to shaving in the appropriate places(underarms and legs) and even plucking hairs which tend to grow on the faces of older women. Hygiene should not be abandoned! Perfumes should be a no-no, but a personal powder without fragrance remains hygienic as far as I’m concerned.

Years ago, I was looking into entering a Benedictine Order, but found that they dressed like school teachers and bank tellers. I was shocked! :eek: I am pleased that the Vatican is investigating some of the, what I call, “rogue communities”. Maybe we can get all of religious communities back on track!👍
 
So you would expect a Sister of Mercy who is actively nursing to wear a full habit?? I don’t care what a religious chooses to wear. I thank God that they are serving the world and our Lord…:cool:
 
In my humble opinion, it is none of my business what a nun wears (or plucks or shaves for that matter). It is an issue between herself and her order!

As for the business about shaving being hygienic - it seems men have more hair under their arms and on their legs and nobody calls it unhygienic to just leave it there, well-bathed.

I am, however, very thankful that EWTN has children’s programming with nuns and sisters in full habit or my son would never see it. There is only one nun in residence in our entire rural county. She dresses in a severe drab suit with short hair and no make-up. Most people just assume she is a lesbian, sad to say.

I love to see nuns in full habit, but I also know that I’ve a tendency to love drama and theater and it is easy to love something you don’t have to live in yourself 24/7. So I leave it up to the nun and her order. None of my beeswax.
 
based on a painful experience, i would say that habit is VERY POWERFUL .
 
HCC said:
Just me, or did we loose something here?
Click to expand...
A. Expectations and concepts?

I think that the religious habit does have a powerful witness and statement to make, but not the only witness and statement and as another poster inferred, we really have to leave it to religious to interpret their original founder’s thought and to implement it - and to respect their decisions. No one, I dont think, is an advocate of a total abandonment of the religious habit by all religious orders. It is more likely one will find advocates for all religious to be back into a form of religious habit for the sake of it - and without reference to the reason a particular religious family exists and the founder’s original thought and gift and how members of that religious family are to live it out in today’s world.
Matthew 6:25
Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat,

nor for your body, what you shall put on
Click to expand...
.
Click to expand...

TS
 
miniquedoes said:
Hello all 🙂 I know there are strong opinions about wearing the habit vs not wearing it. I was wondering what are some thoughts about those nuns that do all they can to look their best. I am talking about dying hair (or wearing a wig, even under a veil yes I’ve seen it done), wearing earrings and other jewelry, getting hair done etc… I once met a sister who had dyed red hair, penciled in eyebrows, earrings, and painted red toenails :eek: Do you think this would affect vocations to their community also?
Click to expand...
Hmm. Did it occur to you that the wigs and pencilled-in eyebrows might be because the woman in question has lost her hair due to cancer treatment? It’s far from uncommon these days. The ‘dyed’ red hair might also be a wig donned for the same reason.

It wouldn’t surprise me, nor should it be a source of concern, that any woman, nun or not, who was going through cancer treatment might also want to wear jewellery or paint her toenails as well, to cheer herself up and feel good about herself.

Having a family member who as we speak is facing radio and chemotherapy for cancer, and faces the prospect of losing all her hair, I’m much more aware of all this stuff than I used to be.
 
HCC said:
Just me, or did we loose something here?
View attachment 9165View attachment 9166View attachment 9167
Click to expand...
Obviously if a sister does not wear the habit it does not mean she deserves any less respect or makes her any less of a sister than those of us who wear it. It just means that it is not always apparent that she is a religious. In some situations and in some jobs, it may not be appropriate for a habit to be worn because of circumstances or cultural considerations and of course the habit does not make the nun. However, I myself prefer my habit and have always loved it deeply as it gives me an identity and that is important to me and my spiritual life.

I hope you can understand what I mean.
 
LilyM said:
Hmm. Did it occur to you that the wigs and pencilled-in eyebrows might be because the woman in question has lost her hair due to cancer treatment? It’s far from uncommon these days. The ‘dyed’ red hair might also be a wig donned for the same reason.

It wouldn’t surprise me, nor should it be a source of concern, that any woman, nun or not, who was going through cancer treatment might also want to wear jewellery or paint her toenails as well, to cheer herself up and feel good about herself.

Having a family member who as we speak is facing radio and chemotherapy for cancer, and faces the prospect of losing all her hair, I’m much more aware of all this stuff than I used to be.
Click to expand...
That was my thought as well. And quite often cancer treatment centres have beauty treatments and pampering provided by volunteers as therapy. I can imagine a Sister as a cancer patient going along with it, for the sake of not being a wet-blanket, particularly if it meant she was keeping another patient company.
 
Will someone please tell me why a woman or for that matter a nun should look dumpy and unattractive. I believe that one should be all that they can be. These people who want to have women look like fundamentalists make me want to scream. Nothing is wrong with make-up, perfume or jewelry. This is 2010!!! Besides some people just don’t look good in black! God made the world wih color everywhere. Do these people want nuns to wear a burka?
 
I too, firmly believe women religious should wear some sort of habit and veil…at all times. (Not to be slept in of course.) We’ve watched the original traditional habits of many orders disintegrate through a variety of “modifications” to the point that they just became ridiculous and were abandoned entirely. Then came the “street clothes” and that was even worse. Now they even wear pants, t-shirts and shorts. I know many of them who don’t even want to be called “sister”.
These pins and medals so many of them wear (in lieu of a habit) might just as well be abstract art because most of the time they’re too small and you don’t even know what they signify by their design.
If you’ve taken vows and consecrated your life to God as a religious, then dress like one and wear the habit proudly. I’m not advocating going back to the cumbersome starched headgear and all that, just a simple dress and veil and sensible shoes. Forget the dyed hair, wigs, makeup, jewelry etc. it’s just insane.
Look at the traditional habited orders: They’ve got the most new vocations.
 
When I see a nun who is not in a habit and sports make up my thoughts are " typical new ager who has been duped by the enneagram, yoga… I bet she’s a rabid feminist". Now I am not saying my initial prejudices are true… But that is the stereotype that presents itself to me. I usually try and say a prayer after becoming acutely aware of the log fixed implacably in my own eye 😛
 
Post 31 made me laugh. Nevertheless it is terribly sad… Especially new age nun:eek:
 
LilyM said:
Hmm. Did it occur to you that the wigs and pencilled-in eyebrows might be because the woman in question has lost her hair due to cancer treatment? It’s far from uncommon these days. The ‘dyed’ red hair might also be a wig donned for the same reason.

It wouldn’t surprise me, nor should it be a source of concern, that any woman, nun or not, who was going through cancer treatment might also want to wear jewellery or paint her toenails as well, to cheer herself up and feel good about herself.

Having a family member who as we speak is facing radio and chemotherapy for cancer, and faces the prospect of losing all her hair, I’m much more aware of all this stuff than I used to be.
Click to expand...
I know for a fact that the people I am talking about did not have cancer. The nun with red hair was her actual hair. The nuns I know who wore a wig, were only wearing it to cover their white hair. We are not talking about ordinary lay women, we are talking about consecrated women. I think that consecrated women are to set themselves apart. One way to do that is by not giving in to worldly visions of beauty.
 
Examples of Modern Religious

I actually have met the Tai Chi nun 😛
 
I put up with similar prejudices all the time, because I wear a nose ring. Sadly, there are some people who still believe what you wear has some sort of magical power to make you “better” (or “worse”) at whatever you’re doing. I guarantee I work just as well with a nose ring as I do without. And I’ve done some of my best work while in my pajamas with my knee on ice.

Wearing makeup and nail polish doesn’t seem to me like it would affect a nun’s ability to work the soup kitchen or teach class or plant a tree or bear witness to the Love of God. It only offends the narrow-minded, preconceived notions that one has to “look” a certain way to be effective.

Miz
 
Miserys_Fence said:
I put up with similar prejudices all the time, because I wear a nose ring. Sadly, there are some people who still believe what you wear has some sort of magical power to make you “better” (or “worse”) at whatever you’re doing. I guarantee I work just as well with a nose ring as I do without. And I’ve done some of my best work while in my pajamas with my knee on ice.

Wearing makeup and nail polish doesn’t seem to me like it would affect a nun’s ability to work the soup kitchen or teach class or plant a tree or bear witness to the Love of God. It only offends the narrow-minded, preconceived notions that one has to “look” a certain way to be effective.

Miz
Click to expand...
Why would a young person today want to give up her own family and friends just to live as any other single lay woman? A nun is not a social worker; she is a consecrated woman. There should be some way to differentiate between them.
 
miniquedoes said:
Why would a young person today want to give up her own family and friends just to live as any other single lay woman? A nun is not a social worker; she is a consecrated woman. There should be some way to differentiate between them.
Click to expand...
Respectfully - and please note that I do mean respectfully - if you think that the sacrifices of consecrated life are encapsulated in wearing religious garb, and that by not wearing said religious garb (or by wearing earrings or makeup) a person can avoid those sacrifices and live ‘as any other single lay woman,’ I think you need to reconsider your understanding of religious life. And of religious habits. What ‘differentiates’ the consecrated individual is their vows to God, not their clothes.

I’m not suggesting that people cannot or should not have a liking for or even a preference for the habit. I am myself a religious who wears a habit, and I believe it has great value. But there are reasons why not everyone wears them, and in any event, achieving holiness is a much greater challenge that simply putting on appropriate clothing (as I know to my bitter regret!).

Although the externals have their place, it isn’t a good idea to place too great an emphasis upon them. Religious life shouldn’t be reduced to the purely aesthetic; nor should our aesthetic preferences become an excuse for criticising other people who don’t share them, or assuming that such a difference of opinion gives us an insight into the mind or soul of another person. There’s no charity in that, and if there’s no charity, we’ve lost our way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top