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RyanML
Guest
I found this question and answer concerning the habit on the website of a Benedictine Monastery ( smmsisters.org/) and wanted to get others’ thoughts about it:
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malphono
Guest
I’ve heard this argument before, almost verbatim. Nothing new. It’s merely the usual post-conciliar defense of the un-habited. :yawn:
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skallal
Guest
Hey Ryan,
This response is a valid historical reason for no longer wearing the habit. Consider Francis whose “habit” was a peasant’s old coat or Mother Teresa who chose the cheapest cloth in Calcutta as her “habit.” This is in no way an endorsement for such a decision or anything else that may be going on in the community, yet there is nothing inherently evil about nuns not wearing habits. Our own sisters, born in 1990, have made a similar decision to wear donated clothing rather than a habit, though debate continues to today. Besides poverty and the desire for solidarity with the poor, our sisters also found **rabid anti-clericalism in Italy **where they were founded. Thus the lack of a habit also served for apostolate, like approaching others in street evangelization. Have a great day and God bless!
This response is a valid historical reason for no longer wearing the habit. Consider Francis whose “habit” was a peasant’s old coat or Mother Teresa who chose the cheapest cloth in Calcutta as her “habit.” This is in no way an endorsement for such a decision or anything else that may be going on in the community, yet there is nothing inherently evil about nuns not wearing habits. Our own sisters, born in 1990, have made a similar decision to wear donated clothing rather than a habit, though debate continues to today. Besides poverty and the desire for solidarity with the poor, our sisters also found **rabid anti-clericalism in Italy **where they were founded. Thus the lack of a habit also served for apostolate, like approaching others in street evangelization. Have a great day and God bless!
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Friar_David_O.Carm
Guest
Do you actually know these nuns?
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malphono
Guest
No. It was a generic comment to a generic defense.
BTW, as is the case with most communities in the US, these are not nuns: they’re sisters. From the website quoted in the OP;
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Old_Convert
Guest
As a “sister-to-be” who has been wearing a postulant’s “habit” for almost a year now (an extern sister living in my own home “in the world” until I go to the convent in October), I can’t tell you the number of people who have come up to me and thanked me for wearing a “habit!” Our Catholic people want their sisters/nuns to wear habits! The people at my parish are thrilled to see a sister in a “habit.” I wear mine everyday to work at an office in a large secular university. Students smile and say “Good Morning” to me. I’ve even had students dressed like gang members run over and open doors for me and say, “Good morning, Sister!” There is a powerful presence in the habit, and God uses it to work much good.
I also can’t begin to tell you how many people have come up to me in public places like stores and offices and asked me to pray for them, just because I’m wearing a “habit.” Would they have come to me if I had not been wearing a “habit?” No way! I’ve even had people say to me, “Sister, I’m not a Catholic, but could you pray for me?” I always tell them that sisters pray for everyone, not just Catholics. I have been rewarded with smiles and even hugs of thanks.
By the way, the “un-habited orders” (like many of the Benedictines) are growing grayer by the day, they are dwindling away, they are dying, and that is a terrible shame. Some of these orders were once large and vigorous. If you need proof of this, just look at their websites. The pictures are worth a thousand words. There sit the old sisters in their polyester pantsuits. How many are left in the once thriving order? Five? Seven?
What orders are growing? The orders who wear habits! Examples: The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, the Sisters of Life, the Dominicans of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, and, of course, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. These orders have to turn aspirants away for lack of room, while the “unhabited” orders are dying on the vine. Talk to almost any young woman in her twenties who has a vocation and ask her what kind of order she would like to join. She’ll say I want to join a traditional order, one that is devoted to the Holy Father, one that wears a habit! Just look on the Vocations forum at Catholic Answers. You can’t miss the fact that young women want to wear the habit. This is the John Paul II generation, and they are coming on strong! Praise God!
Why do you think the Vatican is investigating women’s religious orders in the United States? Hmmm. Among other changes I see coming down the months and years? The return of the habit! Dear God, we Your people, thank You for Pope Benedict XVI!
God bless all sisters who wear the habit. It is a sign to the world that we belong to God and that we are here to serve His people.
I also can’t begin to tell you how many people have come up to me in public places like stores and offices and asked me to pray for them, just because I’m wearing a “habit.” Would they have come to me if I had not been wearing a “habit?” No way! I’ve even had people say to me, “Sister, I’m not a Catholic, but could you pray for me?” I always tell them that sisters pray for everyone, not just Catholics. I have been rewarded with smiles and even hugs of thanks.
By the way, the “un-habited orders” (like many of the Benedictines) are growing grayer by the day, they are dwindling away, they are dying, and that is a terrible shame. Some of these orders were once large and vigorous. If you need proof of this, just look at their websites. The pictures are worth a thousand words. There sit the old sisters in their polyester pantsuits. How many are left in the once thriving order? Five? Seven?
What orders are growing? The orders who wear habits! Examples: The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, the Sisters of Life, the Dominicans of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, and, of course, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. These orders have to turn aspirants away for lack of room, while the “unhabited” orders are dying on the vine. Talk to almost any young woman in her twenties who has a vocation and ask her what kind of order she would like to join. She’ll say I want to join a traditional order, one that is devoted to the Holy Father, one that wears a habit! Just look on the Vocations forum at Catholic Answers. You can’t miss the fact that young women want to wear the habit. This is the John Paul II generation, and they are coming on strong! Praise God!
Why do you think the Vatican is investigating women’s religious orders in the United States? Hmmm. Among other changes I see coming down the months and years? The return of the habit! Dear God, we Your people, thank You for Pope Benedict XVI!
God bless all sisters who wear the habit. It is a sign to the world that we belong to God and that we are here to serve His people.
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bpbasilphx
Guest
I would like to point out that the garb of Holy Poverty in this day and age can be rather expensive!
Which shows more devotion to poverty in my case? Wearing a cassock that costs around $200 (which about par for the course for Eastern cassocks), or wearing cheap clothes and distinctive cross?
It’s a serious issue that I’ve not really decided yet.
On the other hand, cassocks (and other religious habits) are basically uniforms, which always cost more than ordinary clothes.
St. Benedict himself said that the clothing of the monks should be whatever is suitable to the climate, inexpensive, and easily obtainable. (A cassock is none of these, btw.)
Women’s religious habits have historically been based on the dress of the poor and lower classes (at least once upon a time). Bl. Mother Theresa’s community wore the Indian sari, though they gave it a distintive twist for their own purposes. The original Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul wore their famous coronets precisely because they were the usual headdress of French peasant women; these sisters were actually NOT nuns, but something different for the time, which is why they did NOT wear a veil.
The little pillbox hat covered with a veil that wraps around the neck is worn by Romanian Orthodox and Romanian Catholic nuns–but something similar in white and other colors is the traditional headgear of many provinces in Romania, according to an article in an old National Geographic!
dormitionmonastery.org/index.php?page_id=15
And so it goes.
Which shows more devotion to poverty in my case? Wearing a cassock that costs around $200 (which about par for the course for Eastern cassocks), or wearing cheap clothes and distinctive cross?
It’s a serious issue that I’ve not really decided yet.
On the other hand, cassocks (and other religious habits) are basically uniforms, which always cost more than ordinary clothes.
St. Benedict himself said that the clothing of the monks should be whatever is suitable to the climate, inexpensive, and easily obtainable. (A cassock is none of these, btw.)
Women’s religious habits have historically been based on the dress of the poor and lower classes (at least once upon a time). Bl. Mother Theresa’s community wore the Indian sari, though they gave it a distintive twist for their own purposes. The original Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul wore their famous coronets precisely because they were the usual headdress of French peasant women; these sisters were actually NOT nuns, but something different for the time, which is why they did NOT wear a veil.
The little pillbox hat covered with a veil that wraps around the neck is worn by Romanian Orthodox and Romanian Catholic nuns–but something similar in white and other colors is the traditional headgear of many provinces in Romania, according to an article in an old National Geographic!
dormitionmonastery.org/index.php?page_id=15
And so it goes.
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Seminarian_Matt
Guest
Yeah, this is nothing new. For a list of many communities that do wear a habit, here is a useful article:
acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2007/02/nuns-should-wear-habit.html
acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2007/02/nuns-should-wear-habit.html
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RyanML
Guest
I guess I can understand the arguments for the habit not being necessary, although I admit I am very biased. I LOVE seeing priests and religious in their cassocks and habits. It’s such a visible witness of giving one’s life to Christ in opposition to the world. And besides, I’ve yet to meet a religious who discarded the habit and still held to the faith. I think most of them tend to be pretty liberal. I wonder why one seems to follow the other?
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EasterJoy
Guest
Those sisters who used to wear no habit also used to live in 99% Catholic communities who knew who the sisters were, because people rarely travelled more than ten miles or so from home. I think the need for distinctive dress and the effects of it are fundamentally different now than it was then, too.
My Catholic high school used to require the girls to wear uniforms. Even with that experience, I know that being out in public wearing clothing that identified me with my Catholic school had an effect on me, too. I was not just “invisible me.” I was part of the “visible we.” How I behaved reflected on my school and on the Church. It made a big difference.
I was identified with whatever the school was doing, too; those priests who kept wearing the collar in public during the abuse scandal are to be commended for being willing to be identified with the Church through thick and thin! Unlike you, they suffered abuse for wearing distinctive garb.
As for expense, I bought two uniform skirts when I was a freshman, they lasted four years, and they had lots of wear left in them when I graduated. I think orders like the Missionaries of Charity, who live and work in the same distinctive version of locally sensible women’s clothing, are on the right track. If, in colder climates than India, they were to wear something like blue denim jumpers with white shirts underneath, it would make perfect sense. (For all I know, they do!)
Still, to each order is given its own charism: to one this, to another that. That is for each order to discern, and it amounts to truth in advertising, besides. They are the ones who get to live with the effects of their own dress code. They get to live with the kind of novices they do and don’t attract. So even though I have my own opinion, I think it right to let the sisters each decide for their own congregation.
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Friar_David_O.Carm
Guest
Which is a generic judgment that you are unqualified to make.
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malphono
Guest
What I made was a comment, NOT A JUDGMENT. If you don’t know the difference, I can’t help you.
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Javl
Guest
Habits, cassocks, Roman collars, etc. are the uniform of the clergy to distinguish them ( not separate them ) from the laity. All sisters, nuns, priests, monks, should wear a habit/cassock to show of their decision to devote their lives to God alone
PAX DOMINI
Shalom Aleichem.
PAX DOMINI
Shalom Aleichem.
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Friar_David_O.Carm
Guest
I know the difference, it seems that you do not. As a comment is defined as "a: an observation or remark expressing an opinion or attitude b : a judgment expressed indirectly "
So a judgment is part of a comment.
You make a judgment as to why these sisters have made this decision without any factual knowledge of this group.
It seems that many at this forum make snap judgments of group they have no actual experience with.
You may be right but it is uncharitable to make this statement when you have no actual experience with them.
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rjs1
Guest
If you read Mother Teresa’s comments about her order’s habit you will find that she certainly did NOT choose it to blend in and simply because it was like the clothing that all the poor wore.
Rather, she believed it was important that her sisters be recognizable and known for what they stood for.
The Church has, on several occasions, urged religious to wear distinctive dress as a witness to the world - and as a continual reminder to themselves of their vows.
I think it is a total “cop out” that many modern orders do not wear habits and it is an absolute shame that they are not therefore able to be an ongoing challnege to an increasingly secular world.
I also find it very interesting that the only orders that are growing, really growing, are the one that wear a habit.
Rather, she believed it was important that her sisters be recognizable and known for what they stood for.
The Church has, on several occasions, urged religious to wear distinctive dress as a witness to the world - and as a continual reminder to themselves of their vows.
I think it is a total “cop out” that many modern orders do not wear habits and it is an absolute shame that they are not therefore able to be an ongoing challnege to an increasingly secular world.
I also find it very interesting that the only orders that are growing, really growing, are the one that wear a habit.
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yinekka
Guest
our sisters also found rabid anti-clericalism in Italy where they were founded. Thus the lack of a habit also served for apostolate, like approaching others in street evangelization.
I don’t know when this was but today there are sisters in habits all over italy.
I don’t know when this was but today there are sisters in habits all over italy.
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Eric_Olsen
Guest
I think many of these so called nuns and priests who shun the habit are embarrassed by their faith. As far as their clothes being expensive, some diocese, at least here in Philly have a clothing exchange for priests and religious. And it’s true, the nuns and religious who shun the habit tend to be very liberal and trash the teachings of the church. Makes you wonder why they are even Catholic?
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malphono
Guest
My opinion matters not. Neither does yours.
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