Nuns With Habits

[BobP123]

A few months ago I went to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. There I witnessed the Papal Tiara of Paul VI. While standing there, I thought to myself: the act of discarding the papal tiara, rather than being an act of humility as it’s commonly viewed to be, seems to me much rather to be an act filled with pride, shame and disrespect of the papal office.

I agree completely.

Perhaps that act was influenced by the Freemasons surrounding the Pope, I don’t know, but there seemed to have been a pattern of all types of “smoke of Satan” activities going on at the time.

 

[Friend_Of_Rome]

Perhaps that act was influenced by the Freemasons surrounding the Pope, I don’t know, but there seemed to have been a pattern of all types of “smoke of Satan” activities going on at the time.

Sounds like the DaVinci Code to me

 

[childofmary1143]

I voted not at all likely as while I do wish that all Nuns wear their habits I think that bringing vocations back will take more than just wearing the habit

 

[TNT]

This is about like askin if ParaMedics should wear sweatshirts, or t-shirts Bermuda shorts n Flip Flops.​

Or how about Police officers wearin the same?​

People that have a special rank in a society should “dress that rank”. Now all this is mute in an Egalitarian mindset or “democracy run amuck” aka corrupted by the leach of liberalism.

 

[dessert]

I’m not sure about every order, but I know that the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph still wear rings. I’ll have to do some research.:coffeeread:

Our Sisters of Mercy still wear their black and white habits, They run the nursing home St. Elizabeths. Dessert

 

[TNT]

I voted not at all likely as while I do wish that all Nuns wear their habits I think that bringing vocations back will take more than just wearing the habit

Actually, this is the true point.
A uniform without the actual content of it’s meaning is an exercise in …vacuous make believe.
The content of its meaning is Traditional Catholic Faith & Fidelity to it in thought, word & deed… That’s why they disappeared in the first place.

 

[scylla]

I have always been under the impression that habits never went away.
The nuns are still supposed to wear habits, possibly just modified to allow work to be done easier and be more humble\simple.

What has resulted is, instead of following Vatican II some communities have discarded habits and used a spirit of Vatican II which means seeking the least possible you can do in obedience. So instead of a recognizable habit, the habit becomes the minimum expression of the faith, such as a lapel pin or a cross.

We have breeded a whole army of Catholics who express their faith with the minimum expression of their faith and thinking that the minimum, if it is met is ok, no matter how minimum it is.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I voted not at all likely as while I do wish that all Nuns wear their habits I think that bringing vocations back will take more than just wearing the habit

Tridentine Mass is not going to solve all the problems of the Church. Nor are nuns in habits.
However when you’ve got nuns in habits kneeling at a traditional Latin Mass, suddenly the Church is beginning to look a lot more convincing than if it’s the reverse. Every little helps.

 

[gcc_catholic]

Nuns used to wear rings too, to show that they were married to Jesus.

Don’t some priests also wear rings too? (I seem to recall seeing/hearing that somewhere, but I could be wrong)

Also, to echo many here… I think the nuns, brothers, and priests need their proper garb; it doesn’t have to be elaborate (St. Catherine Laboure’s order comes to mind), but it should be something.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

Don’t some priests also wear rings too? (I seem to recall seeing/hearing that somewhere, but I could be wrong)

Bishops certainly do. Queen Elizabeth the First, who was unmarried, also had one. So did Bilbo the Hobbit. In fact everyone except me seems to have one.

 

[TNT]

Don’t some priests also wear rings too? (I seem to recall seeing/hearing that somewhere, but I could be wrong)

Also, to echo many here… I think the nuns, brothers, and priests need their proper garb; it doesn’t have to be elaborate (St. Catherine Laboure’s order comes to mind), but it should be something.

Yes! Even the Mormons wear …well…special secret under garments.

 

[Friend_Of_Rome]

I think that so much confussion and dissent could be done away with if only nuns would not be afraid to look as they did 20, 30, 50 years ago. If someone saw a nun in secular dress, I doubt they would think of her as a nun. Sure, they may call her sister, but they really and truly recognize her authority as a religious?

As I see it, one of the first major steps to a comeback in vocations to the ordained life and religious life would be to restore the expected dignity to the office. Tell me, if you saw a priest in a cassock and a priest in jeans and a tee-shirt, who would you ask for counsel?

I also think, being of the generation of which I speak, that the coming generations will make up the loss of quantity with an increase of quality. All the people whom I have spoken to concerning vocations are spot-on loyal to Rome. None, NONE, have expressed any dangerous ideas, dissidence, etc. . .

Remember, there is always hope in the young. just look at the ages of some of the members here in the forum. I tip my hat to the future of the Church. After all, “the future starts today, not tomorrow.” :tiphat:

 

[Kielbasi]

I don’t think so.

A lot of communities of nuns are in a fairly desperate state at this point in time, with few young nuns around to support the elderly retired sisters.

If a simple change like changing the sisters’ habits would revitalize their orders with new members, some of them would have already tried it.

The fact is that they haven’t.

 

[Karl_M]

I don’t think that nuns wearing habits would single-handedly (sp?) bring back vocations in force, but that isn’t the point.

I think priests should wear collars in public and nuns and brothers should wear habits in public.

I don’t think that the full habit is necessary. The smaller habit, like the one Mother Angelica used to wear before the mid-1990’s is fine. And there’s nothing saying it has to be made with uncomfortable fabric.

Being a priest or a nun isn’t just some job. It’s part of who you are. Wearing collars/habits in public may very well affect your behavior and those around you substantially. I feel nice and comforted when I see the rare nun with a habit these days.

Just because you’re not in the office doesn’t mean you’re not a priest or a nun.

Now if you’re a priest or a nun going to Thanksgiving dinner at your mother’s house, then I think it would be a little extreme asking for the collar/habit at that time, but you know what I mean.

 

[Cobbfmly]

My daughter wants to become a nun. She hates the idea of wearing uniforms for school, but she understands the symbolism of the habit and is more than happy to one day be wearing one.

When my daughter and I look at different orders we ask the following questions:

1. Do they live in a true community (i.e. not just one or two sisters in an apartment)?
2. Do they wear a habit?
3. Does the community have a need for my daughter’s gifts (working with animals and working with lower elementary aged children)?

Right now Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist is on the top of her list.

On another note, while I was in college I lived in a room off of my grandparent’s garage that had a bathroom that lead to the back yard, which had a large pool. Their house was 2 doors away from the parish. It was not uncommon to come home from classes during the summer to find habits folded up on my bathroom counter. I enjoyed going out back and talking with the sisters as the swam. They always asked me about my boyfriend

 

[lak611]

My daughter wants to become a nun. She hates the idea of wearing uniforms for school, but she understands the symbolism of the habit and is more than happy to one day be wearing one.

When my daughter and I look at different orders we ask the following questions:

1. Do they live in a true community (i.e. not just one or two sisters in an apartment)?
2. Do they wear a habit?
3. Does the community have a need for my daughter’s gifts (working with animals and working with lower elementary aged children)?

Right now Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist is on the top of her list.

On another note, while I was in college I lived in a room off of my grandparent’s garage that had a bathroom that lead to the back yard, which had a large pool. Their house was 2 doors away from the parish. It was not uncommon to come home from classes during the summer to find habits folded up on my bathroom counter. I enjoyed going out back and talking with the sisters as the swam. They always asked me about my boyfriend

Here’s a picture of two nuns having a snowball fight in their habits.

 

[Aramis]

This is about like askin if ParaMedics should wear sweatshirts, or t-shirts Bermuda shorts n Flip Flops.​

Or how about Police officers wearin the same?​

Locally, I’ve seen police and fire service personnel working in T’s and Sweatshirts. One of the parameds in my recent ambulance ride was in a sweatshirt, the other in a T-shirt. Both departmental issue.

Typically, symbols don’t change. The cross is a symbol of the passion. How can it change forms? Sure, there may be the byzantine Cross, the Traditional Cross, the Orthodox Cross etc. . .but they are all symbols of Christ. the whole understanding of a symbol is something that does not change. If we change our symbols, we lose touch with our traditions which means (for Catholics) trouble.

Oh, really? so you pronounce “v” as “u” and “w” as “oo,” and consider the revolutionary war flag the only valid US one?

You consider the pallium made in ring-and-tabs form (a 1500’s change) invalid? (The traditional pallium was in the same style as Pope Benedict is wearing.)

Some symbols are more important than others. The “Habit” of today is darned near common daily wear from the 1300’s. In the case of the Dominican habit, it literally is such. (Light, white linnen robe with tabard and mantle, heavy black cloak and mantle over it as needed by weather).

It has changed… not much, but it has, with machine stitching rather than hand, storebought belts, and socks and shoes rather than sandals or soft boots, but it still is the daily wear from the time of their establishment.

I pose this question: If the wearing of a habit, or even a uniform in general, shows a submission to will, then how is there a sign of submission when nuns wear secular clothing? When priests wear business suits rather than a collar? When a McDonald’s employee “dresses down” without her manager’s approval?

I’ve seen sisters in secular clothing, but never a nun. (There is a distinction, similar to friar vs monk.). Of course, I’ve only been inside one cloister, and that for Mass only. (The DSP had a cloister in their store in Anchorage, and a Dominican coopted me to be altar server for the mass on the feast of St. Paul.)

The shame is that that building is no longer even a bookstore.

And, at least locally, many of the sisters wear a simplified habit of business suit and hair-veil. Much like the Anglican ones nearby.

 

[fcbv]

I voted “most likely” because I think all the religious, male and female, should wear always the habit, but we must be careful! The habit isn’t everything when a person is discerning his/her vocation to an order. The dissident traditionalist orders wear full habits, as do some faithful orders and monasteries. But the truth is that the habited orders which are faithful to the Magisterium of the Church are actually growing, while the non-habited orders are growing older. I personally prefer the habited orders!

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

I said not at all likely because wearing the habit should be a free choice that no one is pressured into. It should be an unwritten rule, essentially. When you make it mandatory, the meaning gets lost as to why you are wearing it.

Ideally, nuns should wear the habit on their own.

Aunt Ronnie - aka Sister Mary Joachim, SSND - still wears hers. She is 92 and still sends our Christmas cards. It’s better for her (spiritually speaking) and for the quality of the nuns (spiritually speaking) to choose to wear the habit rather than to be forced to wear the habit.

I suppose I might be open to keeping the habit optional order by order and seeing which ones are most successful (I strongly suspect those in habits will win out significantly), but on the level of any particular order there is absolutely no problem with making the habit mandatory. Even when mandatory, it remains a free choice - just like the rest of the rule of the community. A Benedictine freely chooses the whole of that life, not “I’ll enter your community so long as I’m exempt from kitchen service and Lauds and can have a more comfortable bed.” The habit is just as important for formation of persons in community as the other parts of the rule.

 

[Friend_Of_Rome]

Now, a second facet to the question-

Are nuns who wear habits generally more or less dedicated to the religious life. This question does not mean, “Do nuns wihout habits look too secular?” Rather, it means, “Do some nuns look secular and yet are very orthodox?”

I don’t really think that a habit serves as a sign for Traditionalism. They are a symbol of the religious life.