Habits In Hot Weather

[tinytherese]

It's especially hot this time of year, especially for our southern friends. Do they just get used to it and offer it up? Air conditioning? (Hmm, that may be a problem with the vow of poverty.) I've fainted and gotten sick from the heat before.

[faithcecelia]

Sweat! It was a struggle for me I admit as I overheat easily - I was so grateful that the hottest week of all that I was there I was on retreat (we had a mobile home in the grounds you used for retreats) so I only actually put my habit on for Mass and for walks which I did either at about 5am or after 8pm! The rest of the time I was just in my pjs or cool baths - I did all my retreat study in the bath!

Our habits were polyester, strange though it sounds but wool can be cooler (tho heavier) as its natural and lets the body breathe.

[OnlySunshine]

The order that I am most interested in (the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word) provides air conditioning. I think most have air conditioning because having long sleeves and being in the heat would cause problems, not only with exhaustion, but hygiene as well. Sweaty habits are not pretty. Especially if you are wearing white (ew, yellow pits). Also, the SsEW take showers every night (if I remember correctly) and after working hard so they don't get so sweaty. I really like that. I would not want to be in an order that didn't bathe after hard labor. I wouldn't feel very good. I have to take a shower when I drive in my car after a while because I have no A/C (old car; 1992), so being in long sleeves in heat--I can just imagine how that would feel.

[carmenchristi]

To a certain degree (haha... that's in interesting pun) you get used to it. I guess it's kind of like with long haired mammals. For example sheep, or long haired dogs, they may suffer the heat a bit more than a short haired animal. Though it does take some time. Of you were to put a sheeps coat on your doberman in mid-summer... he just might drop dead on you. I personally have been wearing a suuuuuuuper old habit that is so thread-bare... it is wonderfully light. It is also full of patches, so I only go to work (in an archive, no one sees me!) or to school where everyone knows everyone else, and they understand that my patches aren't for poverty, but for my stubborness in not wanting to throw away this tunic!
It is very true, as faith said, that wool is much cooler than polyester. We have several batches of habits from different companies/tailors and those with a high content of polyester are unbearable, because they make you sweat. It's like wearing plastic. Wool on the other hand can be heavier (although there is a kind of very light wool that is WONDERFUL for the summer) but it is MUCH cooler.

[Cherie]

Yeah I lived in AL and wore a full-length habit. When we worked outside, it got [i]verrrryyy[/i] hot. I remember one of the Sisters used to cheerfully exclaim, "It's much hotter in hell! Let's offer this up for the souls in purgatory!" And I remember when I was a postulant, shortly after I entered I was assigned to sweep the breezeway with another novice in order to prepare for a Perpetual Profession ... the entire time I was sweating like crazy and grunting or saying things like, "My goodness, it's hot!" and I'll never forget how the other novice was practically [i]pouring[/i] sweat and she didn't say a word of complaint.

So yeah, thankfully a lot of convents have air conditioners, but some don't, and they usually just offer it up. But even though the inside of our convent had a/c, there were a lot of times we had to be outside or work outside in very hot and humid weather. As uncomfortable as it could be, it was really a good way to practice virtue ... and I can't tell you how edified and inspired I was by the behavior of some Sisters under those circumstances!

But yeah, shower afterwards was definitely a good thing ... and sometimes that helped with the feeling that you're about to have a heat stroke !

[FutureSister2009]

This was something I wanted to know. I'm trying to get used to walking in the heat with my normal clothes. I think it's best to just drink a lot of water so they don't get sick and stay hydrated.

[linnie]

When I was in Israel I met a nun who was in a full habit. at the time it was about 100, very very hot, and I was wondering how she could stand the heat. as I got closer to her I saw that her habit was made out of a very light weight, crinkly fabric. She looked so cool and comfortable!

[Chiara Francesco]

Many Carmels that are located in such extreme hot temps are mandated/put under obedience to have ACs installed. One example is the Dallas Carmel as with the extreme heat and them wearing the full traditional wool habit - which is cooler they said than the other materials they've tried, wool breathes - installed ACs as over the years some sisters (I believe all older sisters) died from the heat. Especially now when for the past 2 months or so the average daily heat in Texas is from 9 am to 10 pm is 100-104 degrees! And Dallas may have high humidity too.

Actually the vow of poverty just doesn't cover material goods but is more often aimed at the "poverty of spirit". Having things like ACs, etc, is just common sense and is needed in some situations. If a Carmel or other order is in an area where the hottest it gets is in the 80s or less, probably no ACs would be used.

Many saints, St. Clare, etc and probably St. Teresa of Avila used common sense in their rules for the sisters, ie having meat if a sister is sick, etc. and if ACs were around in their times I can imagine them using them!

Another example: I discerned at a very traditional PCC community that had an old Victorian monastery and had 3-4 floors and it was very hard, if not impossible, for the older to sisters to climb these stairs several times a day doing their duties or even if they could manage, it was impossible carrying anything like laundry or whatever, so the Abbess installed a dumb waiter type system to help them. She told me yes they are austere and follow strictly St. Colette's reform of St. Clare's rule but "Our Holy Mother St. Clare was smart in the same way and used common sense to help the sisters and not so rigid as to stick to a rule that would cause harm to any". Just as the barefoot PCCs use sandals outside for any work or even just walking, it is not using good sense to go barefoot and have foot injuries or cuts that then need medical attention or cause one or more sisters to unable to perform her offices due to being immobile for a while with an injured foot. That same abbess said it was a beautiful and well-loved penance enough that they were 3/4 of the time barefoot indoors and in the winter times!

So there is common sense, the avoidance of undue stress to some sisters and then a bishop's mandate that would overrule on occasions.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='CherieMadame' timestamp='1310211321' post='2264923']
Yeah I lived in AL and wore a full-length habit. When we worked outside, it got [i]verrrryyy[/i] hot. I remember one of the Sisters used to cheerfully exclaim, "It's much hotter in hell! Let's offer this up for the souls in purgatory!" And I remember when I was a postulant, shortly after I entered I was assigned to sweep the breezeway with another novice in order to prepare for a Perpetual Profession ... the entire time I was sweating like crazy and grunting or saying things like, "My goodness, it's hot!" and I'll never forget how the other novice was practically [i]pouring[/i] sweat and she didn't say a word of complaint.

So yeah, thankfully a lot of convents have air conditioners, but some don't, and they usually just offer it up. But even though the inside of our convent had a/c, there were a lot of times we had to be outside or work outside in very hot and humid weather. As uncomfortable as it could be, it was really a good way to practice virtue ... and I can't tell you how edified and inspired I was by the behavior of some Sisters under those circumstances!

But yeah, shower afterwards was definitely a good thing ... and sometimes that helped with the feeling that you're about to have a heat stroke !
[/quote]

I think that our society has become so reliant on A/C to cool us off, so our sweat glands and internal cooling system is lazy. As soon as the A/C went out at home, I could immediately tell the difference and it was awful. It got so muggy and hot inside. I tried using an ice pack on my neck and using the fans, but it didn't help that much. Finally, my mom and I took our dog to the pet store because my dog was getting very hot and uncomfortable. We didn't want her to have a heat stroke. She's a senior dog (12 years old), and has black fur, so she was the most uncomfortable out of all of us. Normally, when I am hot, I take a cold shower which lowers my body temperature. It's also good when you leave your skin a bit damp or mist it with a water bottle and sit under a fan. It simulates sweating without making you sticky and smelly.

[Ephrem Augustine]

I was at a week retreat at the Benedictine St. Andrews Abbey, in Valyermo (high desert in CA north of Los Angeles). The Benedictines wore the habit. I couldn't use the excuse to not wear mine. Indoor areas had AC, and the outdoors was not as bad as I anticipated. Maybe it is the aridity.
It was intensly humid here in SD last week, and basic modesty was difficult.
But for those in the muggy areas, its a whole different thing then the heat that I grew up with in CA. I don't know what to tell you, we get a couple days like that in SD, and it is unbearable to say the least.
I am also considered strange for wearing a tshirt, swim shorts, and flip flops under my habit, because it is not a suit, black pantaloons, black socks, and dress shoes. Well strange not on account of the friars who wear the habit, but on lay people who don't.

[Mary Magdalene]

Some orders like the religious sisters of mercy have a summer habit. This is is lighter colour and made from a lighter material. They also go swimming in the summer time. They have a pool at the motherhouse, which comes in handy!

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Mary Magdalene' timestamp='1310427789' post='2266012']
Some orders like the religious sisters of mercy have a summer habit. This is is lighter colour and made from a lighter material. They also go swimming in the summer time. They have a pool at the motherhouse, which comes in handy!
[/quote]

amesome! I love the idea of having a swimming pool handy for the summer. I've been wanting to go swimming a lot this summer, and we don't have a pool nearby, so I've had to resort to taking cool showers instead. It's not the same.

On a different note, I've been thinking about contacting them again recently. I'm serious about majoring in Social Work and the fact that they have Sisters that do this is really cool.

[kavalamyself]

The community I was in had air conditioning, but we didn't use it all the time. We opened the windows (we were on a hill) and usually had a nice breeze. Sometimes it was just hot, though. Once my Novice Mistress talked to us about this and told us to try to offer it up for those who commit sins of immodesty. Even though it didn't work out for me there, that piece of advice took and even today I think about that.

[MithLuin]

The Salesian sisters have different color habits - white for the summer, grey/black for the winter. The white ones are still quite warm, though (I think they have polyester in them), and they can only be so thin...because white is a bit see-through! In the US, there's a lot of AC (though not always), but in other countries, I guess they just sweat a lot.

[Mary Magdalene]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' timestamp='1310430023' post='2266038']
amesome! I love the idea of having a swimming pool handy for the summer. I've been wanting to go swimming a lot this summer, and we don't have a pool nearby, so I've had to resort to taking cool showers instead. It's not the same.

On a different note, I've been thinking about contacting them again recently. I'm serious about majoring in Social Work and the fact that they have Sisters that do this is really cool.
[/quote]


amesome! Praying for you MM