Your Favorite Postulant Outfit

[Margaret Mary]

Just wondering what you all perfer/like in a postulant outfit. I don't have a particular favorite, but I do like when the order allows for the wearing of a postulant veil. What are your prefrences in regard to postulant garb?

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

[quote name='Margaret Mary' date='08 August 2010 - 01:23 PM' timestamp='1281291830' post='2154174']
Just wondering what you all perfer/like in a postulant outfit. I don't have a particular favorite, but I do like when the order allows for the wearing of a postulant veil. What are your prefrences in regard to postulant garb?
[/quote]

Margaret Mary--I'm glad you brought this up, because it is a timely topic. The Phatmass Phemale Community (PPC), which, by the way, you are warmly invited to join--look down the page) has not yet come up with a consensus on a postulant outfit. So, if this thread shows some of our favorite options, maybe we can take the best things from all the different outfits as we design one for PPC postulants.

Edited August 8, 2010 by IgnatiusofLoyola

[LadyOfSorrows]

I personally was really attracted to the one that was worn by St. Teresa of the Andes in the movie on her life! I believe she had a white veil and a cape. I'll try to find it.

[LadyOfSorrows]

Well I couldn't find a picture of that one, but I love the postulant outfits for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church! They're blue and white with a white veil. Very Marian.


[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs257.snc1/10416_156995451862_542951862_3264280_4690663_n.jpg[/img]

[OnlySunshine]

The postulant outfit for the Lockport Dominicans is beautiful and so humbling. I,too, love outfits that come with a veil.

[MarieLynn]

My favourite postulant outfit is the one I wore sooooo many years ago, when the Vat 2 Council was just sitting. A black long sleeved dress with a detatchable white collar, an elbow length cape buttoned down the front and a black net veil with white piping across the front.

IMHO we looked like postulants.

[Sarah147]

[quote name='LadyOfSorrows' date='08 August 2010 - 04:30 PM' timestamp='1281295844' post='2154203']
Well I couldn't find a picture of that one, but I love the postulant outfits for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church! They're blue and white with a white veil. Very Marian. [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img]


[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs257.snc1/10416_156995451862_542951862_3264280_4690663_n.jpg[/img]
[/quote]

I love that photo. They are adorable.

[krissylou]

I am sure everyone else will want some sort of habit-like postulant garb, and that's fine, but I had to share this bit about the most recent postulant at the Roxbury Carmel:

She has a great love for the liturgy, and since our postulants wear secular clothes until they enter the novitiate, we have enjoyed how she attires ‘liturgically’ by wearing, for example, the same color as the vestments of the day. But the prize was on Earth Day. Although that was not a liturgical feast, we enjoyed [Postulant's] skirt with animals and trees!

[MithLuin]

I'm going to vote for my sister's order, of course!

[img]http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs383.snc3/23456_535625736020_144902390_31583175_5864687_n.jpg[/img]

Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Polish order with a Franciscan charism (and a devotion to the Sacred Heart, obviously!) You wouldn't even know it was postulant garb if you didn't see her with the sisters.

[Hilde]

So this isn't real but I really like the postulant outfit in Sister Act. It's a white blouse with a basic black dress over.

[Piccoli Fiori JMJ]

I'm rather fond of the Lockport Dominicans' and the PCCs in Rockford:

[img]http://www.rockfordpoorclares.org/images/page-8_06.jpg[/img]

[Cherie]

[quote name='MithLuin' date='09 August 2010 - 02:25 AM' timestamp='1281335143' post='2154537']
I'm going to vote for my sister's order, of course!

[img]http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs383.snc3/23456_535625736020_144902390_31583175_5864687_n.jpg[/img]

Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Polish order with a Franciscan charism (and a devotion to the Sacred Heart, obviously!) You wouldn't even know it was postulant garb if you didn't see her with the sisters.
[/quote]

WOW, I didn't know that was your Sister's Order! They have a house in Cresson - actually I think it may be their Motherhouse? - which is a tiny little town that not many people know about, but it's right down the street from where my husband is from and where we used to live (and hope to move back there someday in the not-too-distant future, actually!) Small world! They're a great community; they recently did the music for a wedding of a friend of ours. If I had known they did that sort of thing, I would have requested it for my own wedding back in November!

[ksterling]

I'm going from having no opinion on habits since I never saw one in real life (pre-discernment) to being VERY opinionated. A friend of mine - whose hobby is browsing old bookstores, just gave me a a few books about the Maryknoll sisters including "Bernie Becomes a Nun" that she found at a sale of library books from a catholic school that was closing. I like the old postulant habit of the Maryknolls which, I understand, is very similar to that of most other communities pre-VII. I like the black (or blue is nice too) dress and little cape with a white collar and veil. I think the veil makes the outfit look like religious attire rather than a Catholic girls' school uniform, which is what I think the DSMME and Nashville postulants' outfits look like. A little veil would make all the difference.

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='ksterling' date='09 August 2010 - 09:08 AM' timestamp='1281359325' post='2154584']
I'm going from having no opinion on habits since I never saw one in real life (pre-discernment) to being VERY opinionated. A friend of mine - whose hobby is browsing old bookstores, just gave me a a few books about the Maryknoll sisters including "Bernie Becomes a Nun" that she found at a sale of library books from a catholic school that was closing. I like the old postulant habit of the Maryknolls which, I understand, is very similar to that of most other communities pre-VII. [b]I like the black (or blue is nice too) dress and little cape with a white collar and veil. I think the veil makes the outfit look like religious attire rather than a Catholic girls' school uniform, which is what I think the DSMME and Nashville postulants' outfits look like. A little veil would make all the difference[/b].
[/quote]

I agree COMPLETELY.

[Cherie]

[quote name='ksterling' date='09 August 2010 - 09:08 AM' timestamp='1281359325' post='2154584']
I think the veil makes the outfit look like religious attire rather than a Catholic girls' school uniform, which is what I think the DSMME and Nashville postulants' outfits look like. A little veil would make all the difference.
[/quote]

From my experience in a religious community, I agree - I think it actually does the Church a SERVICE for postulants to wear veils. Here's why: in our community, we didn't wear postulant veils. I can't tell you HOW many times I would be out with my family during a family visit, or out with one of the professed Sisters, and people would say, "Oh, what Catholic school do you go to?" or something along those lines. A veil would have made it obvious that I was in a religious community. Only those very well-versed in religious communities ever knew I was a postulant by what I was wearing. That's the beauty of the witness of the habit - people know you are a consecrated religious. Although postulants are not consecrated religious or even have true canonical status, still - I think it's important that people know they are members of a religious community and not just a "Catholic school girl" - it would affect the way others view her (especially as regards purity!), and would help the Sister in the way she carries herself.

Just my two cents