Nuns With Habits Vs. Nuns Without

[hyperdulia again]

Helen Prejean makes me want to change the world for Christ and His Church. Lots of "faithful" and "obedient" Catholics make we want to be an Episcopalian.

[M.SIGGA]

This is a really disturbing thread - judging faithfulness based on clothes. A full habit Carmelite taught me in high school and she probably said everything right by the book, but inside she was just plain wicked and evil. I think habits show an amesome level of devotion, but faithfulness is shown by character and actions.

[M.SIGGA]

Is she a faithful obedient Catholic?

THat is the bottom line.

just listen to her speak for 10 minutes.

[cmotherofpirl]

Yes and no.

We do not choose our clothes casually, they are a statement about ourselves.

Just like I wear my crucifix; it is a statement about my beliefs.

The nuns today, whose clothing is indistinguishable from everybody else, seem to be religiously indistinguishable from everybody else. THey look like well-dressed church ladies. Most of them are no longer faithful to Chuch teaching, but their own version of Church teaching.

I had one explain to me we no longer believe in purgatory, another that Jesus didn't know he was God etc etc. Most of them are pro-ordination. I have never heard this stuff from any nun or sister in a habit.

[Laudate_Dominum]

It's true that we shouldn't judge someone's orthodoxy based on whether or not they wear a habit (or clerics for a priest). But in my experience there is most definitely, undeniably a trend in this regard. But certainly there are exceptions. That's my position more or less. What I wonder is what the Church's position is on all this. I know I've read things that strongly encourage the habit. I wonder when some nuns stopped wearing them. I wonder if it was approved by the Church. Lot's of the recent changes started as acts of disobedience (eg., Communion on the hand) that the Church later compromised with.

[M.SIGGA]

I'm not going to diss any more nuns other than the one I already did and I appologize for that. I highly respect all men and women who have the courage to answer God's calling to the priesthood and religious life.

I reiterate that habits are an amesome statement of devotion and loyalty to tradition, but they don't totally make the complete Christian; witness and faith must be incorporated too.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Dang.. I feel bad too. Nuns are brides of Christ no matter what they wear.

[littleflower+JMJ]

good points, that definitly need to be addressed

heres the way i see it..........

its like NBA/college basketball, etc. (sorry, i just like basketball) you can't play the game if you dont' have the jersey on, doesn't mean your not a player nor that your not a team member, but its not allowed because if your not in your jersey, ur breaking the rules and no one knows which team your on, and the game is impossible to play. and that makes sense when you think about it. somehow, without habits you lose all that.and when vocations change to where its hard to distinguish between the two, now thats scary.

and i think its something that should be recognize and talked about because the order that is always inviting me scares me with how they are in their beliefs and how they don't wear habits. :shame: and i think...........

i think st. therese was cool and all the nuns who were saints and wore their habit faithfully. :wub: their my heros :wub:

[IcePrincessKRS]

Nuns are brides of Christ no matter what they wear.

Totally.

I hope no one mis-read my comment as dissing Nuns who don't wear habits. I just think that habits are amesome, and if I were a nun I'd definately want one!

[littleflower+JMJ]

  if I were a nun I'd definately want one!

if i was a nun, i would demand one! hahaha because it would be important to me to fulfill my role as a nun if God were to call me to it.

im just saying....thats a big IF guys! dont quote me! Lol

[sista2b]

when religious wear habits/clerics it makes me feel at home. i spent a month in europe and everytime i got homesick i saw a sister. it was then i was reminded that where the Church is, is home.

the habits help the religoius to remind them who they are and who they represent. i think it'd be a easier to not show charity to someone if you didn't wear the habit. not that their aren't good sisters who don't wear habits, but i don't see them very often. actually as individuals most of the none habit wearing sisters i know aren't that bad. its when they get together they seem to go off...somewhere. they're kinda Feminazi-ish. ya know 'Mother God' and yoga new age stuff.

i guess i shouldn't use habits as a label, but in my area its pretty acurate that

no habits=bad news

[PatrickRitaMichael]

The Daughters of Charity don't wear full habits, if I'm understanding what that means exactly. They were started in France when women were cloistered but St. Vincent De Paul had them not be exactly like the other nuns so that they could out and serve the poor. I don't think I know enough nuns to determine whether habit = orthodox but I love all of them anyway! They are my heroes! (heroines?)

[BLAZEr]

I've seen some of these so called "brides" relegate their older sisters to infirmaries where they are neglected, their habits are stolen, their prayer books are replaced with Anthony demello, and their rosaries broken to pieces and put in jars next to their beds.

Some of these brides are wicked wicked women.

Now, that being said, I don't think wearing a habit is necessarily a sign of disobedience and heterodoxy. Nor is it a sign of evil.

The sisters of St. Joseph are a very large order. Some are wacky pantaloons. Some are saints. Helen Prejean is a saint who flirts with wacky pantaloons. I have spent some time with her and found her inspiring and dedicated, but similarly I've wondered if she was a social activist or a woman consecrated to God. She herself admits the tension and struggles to be a woman totally consecrated to God and a social activist. It's not easy, most of us would fail at it.

The School Sister of Notre Dame are also very large and very varied. One of the most orthodox and holy nuns I know is a SSND . . . one of the most heterodox and mean I know is also a SSND. So, you just gotta get to know a nun.

Now, both of those orders are dying out. They have almost ZERO vocations. I wouldn't recommend a young girl joining them (unless they truly felt called there) because they will probably end up very alone.

I recommend orders of Young Vibrant women . . . and quite frankly, most of them wear habits. There are a few Orders where the woman specifically DON'T wear habits . . . and are orthodox . . . they usually have some mision that requires it.

[M.SIGGA]

I was always under the impression that people were called to specific orders based on what that order is all about, like their founder's mission - it's not about picking and choosing, but I'm not a religious/priest/seminarian so I don't really know for sure.

BTW almost all the old orders who crossed the ocean with our immigrant ancestors, are aging quickly or dying out including the Daughters of Charity, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Carmelites, and the Ursalines - but you didn't mention the fact that some of these orders are vibrant and growing in the Third World, including the Sisters of St. Joseph.

[M.SIGGA]

The sisters of St. Joseph are a very large order.  Some are wacky pantaloons.  Some are saints.  Helen Prejean is a saint who flirts with wacky pantaloons.  I have spent some time with her and found her inspiring and dedicated, but similarly I've wondered if she was a social activist or a woman consecrated to God.  She herself admits the tension and struggles to be a woman totally consecrated to God and a social activist.  It's not easy, most of us would fail at it.

Sr. Helen Prejean taught my mother senior religion at St. Joseph Academy in New Orleans and my mom said there was something special about her back then because she could always see the good inside the most horrifying and depressing situations.

I wouldn't call her an activist because she has and extremely unique personality unlike most other people - I met her too and I think that's just her personality. I went to Angola State Penitentary on a high school field trip and that was like walking into the gates of hell - it is so scary. She goes went their on a daily basis to prepare murderous inmates for the electric chair and to meet God.

She also lived in the St. Thomas Housing development to care for orphans when New Orleans was the murder capital of the United States in the 80's. That is even scarier than Angola. I don't think she is given the proper attention that she deserves and it's really unfair to call her a liberal or a lefty.

If any of you get around to actually reading Dead Man Walking, she writes about why she doesn't wear the habit anymore and it's actually pretty comical. While teaching school, she always had a tendancy to lean and stand too close to the candles and she went up in flames a few times and had to be stomped out. She commically said it was her destiny to become a nun during the years when the Church was reforming religious dress.

Sr. Helen will flirt with anyone including wackos if they will act to abolish the death penalty and save someone's life. She has much more courage then me.