New Habits for Bridgeport Dominicans

[Sponsa-Christi]

It looks like the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Springs (Bridgeport Dominicans) adopted a traditional Dominican habit: https://dominicanfriars.org/saint-vincent-ferrer-high-school-catholic-school-deepens-dominican-roots/?fbclid=IwAR2lJk9UhVXX57dlbtAFcIJWFI_Z_m_xtcGTqhzH420et5xxoSpi93PHls0

The Bridgeport Dominicans are technically a new community, but they branched off from an older, more progressive Dominican community in Ohio. Part of their thought in forming a new congregation was to have a greater emphasis on the traditions of religious life, like community life and prayer in common. Until relatively recently, they wore simple black and white secular clothes with a Dominican symbol as a pin. But it looks like they've re-adopted a full Dominican habit.

I do know these Sisters personally, and while it always takes a while for a new community to find its feet, the Sisters themselves are lovely and very well-balanced. 

[Swami Mommy]

I love the look and symbolism of traditional habits, but I always wonder how nuns and sisters can tolerate the body heat that all that fabric would create, especially in humid summer weather.  I am always so hot that I wear short-sleeved tops even during the bitter cold of the snowy Northeastern U.S.!

[chrysostom]

9 hours ago, Swami Mommy said:

I love the look and symbolism of traditional habits, but I always wonder how nuns and sisters can tolerate the body heat that all that fabric would create, especially in humid summer weather.  I am always so hot that I wear short-sleeved tops even during the bitter cold of the snowy Northeastern U.S.!

I think it was someone else on here who mentioned St Therese's comment that the Carmelite habit was too hot in summer and too cold in winter!

[Bonkira]

Their website notes it as a personal choice of three sisters. This seems like a healthy community where both collective and individual identity as a religious is encouraged to develop.

[DameAgnes]

It's only three of the sisters who have decided to embrace the habit:

http://www.dominicanvocations.org/

"On Sunday, August 27th, Father Walter Wagner, OP blessed the scapulars, veils and rosaries for three sisters who will begin to wear the traditional Dominican habit on September 8th.  After prayerful reflections, three of our Sisters have made the decision to wear the traditional habit of the Dominican Sisters.  The distinctive habit is a part of the long tradition of Dominican women and men who witnessed to their identity as those who are committed to the lifestyle of Saint Dominic.  Sisters Martha Kunesh, Christine Cosgrove and Gail Morgan made their decisions based on a personal choice to be consciously identified as a woman religious and a Dominican Sister.  These Sisters are responding to a personal commitment to "reading the signs of the times" and responding to a more radical witness as Dominican Sisters.  We are very grateful to the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville for helping us make our habits and for their continued prayers and support."

One of the three, Sr. Christine Cosgrove, was recently elected Prioress:

"The Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Springs held their Fourth General Chapter on June 21-24, 2018 at Saint Vincent Ferrer in New York City.  The Sisters elected Sister Christine Cosgrove, OP to serve as Prioress of the congregation for the next three years.  The delegates also elected Sister Gail Morgan, OP as the First Councilor and Sister Mary Elena Rizzo, OP as the Second Councilor.  Congratulations and Blessings to these Sisters!"

[gloriana35]

On 4/15/2019 at 10:21 AM, Bonkira said:

Their website notes it as a personal choice of three sisters. This seems like a healthy community where both collective and individual identity as a religious is encouraged to develop.

That is an excellent point. 

Though I never wore the 'old habit,' Sisters in the community I entered largely did (including the headbands and coif) then. I must admit that, though I've worn a modified habit and short veil, I never desired to wear the original habit.  It was massive, hot serge, and could be really cumbersome.

I'm glad to see a community where, though many wear a simple suit and cross, there is no resistance to or scorn for those who wish to wear the traditional habit. 

 

[Yaatee]

On 4/14/2019 at 11:33 PM, chrysostom said:

I think it was someone else on here who mentioned St Therese's comment that the Carmelite habit was too hot in summer and too cold in winter!

Chrys, I am sure that you've had your thyroid tested many times!

Poor Ste. Thérèse lived in !9th c. France with a strong Jansenist orientation forwards suffering and bodily harshness. I don't think that her monastery was heated, and that the nuns could have only one blanket. I recall that Ste. T had a little portable heater or chauvette that she required but made fun of.  Suffering was admired and required.  Her mother superior thought it disgraceful that any Carmelite should require morphine. Ste. T received only a little sirop de morphine in her last days.  The life of Ste. T has been extensively documented, especially in her monastery, and makes for interesting reading, if a little sad.

I am retired, but was in the medical profession.

[Yaatee]

On 4/14/2019 at 1:44 PM, Swami Mommy said:

I love the look and symbolism of traditional habits, but I always wonder how nuns and sisters can tolerate the body heat that all that fabric would create, especially in humid summer weather.  I am always so hot that I wear short-sleeved tops even during the bitter cold of the snowy Northeastern U.S.!

Swami, I am sure that you've had your thyroid tested many times! 

Sorry, Chrys,  for directing this observation originally at you...

[gloriana35]

16 hours ago, Yaatee said:

Poor Ste. Thérèse lived in !9th c. France with a strong Jansenist orientation forwards suffering and bodily harshness.

I am very glad you addressed this. I am not a doctor, but am a doctor of humanities and M Div, and know, all too well, about 'cultures of suffering.' I'm sorry to see, today, that this has not died out entirely. Even Mother Teresa made me shiver with her emphasis on suffering. 

In my youth, when Sisters all wore the 'old habit,' I remember meeting a community who had headgear intentionally designed to fit with only enough space to breathe and see - the design duplicated a coffin, to keep them in mind of death!