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AS064 Ask Sister – confession and reconciliation, chapel veils, Lent, a real nun on the set of Sister Act II, and more!
AS064 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 18, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Julianna Vagnozzi, CSSF. Topics include: confession and reconciliation, chapel veils, Lent, a real nun on the set of Sister Act II, and more!
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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:
- New Protestant religious order seeks advice on habits.
- What’s up with chapel veils and mantillas in church — too old-school, sign of respect, gender stereotyping?
- Confession and reconcilation
- Do habits “cause” vocations?
- Lenten solidarity with people who are poor
- A real sister gets into the act in the movie Sister Act II
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{ 18 comments }
Not being a nun, but having gone to a pre-Vatican II parochial school taught by nuns, I have to say that to me, a habit represents, on the positive side, an outward sign of the commitment and a for the wearer, a sense of belonging. But for me, the negatives outweigh the positives: conformity, control, repression, and depersonalization. Women in the Church, both professed and laity, have fought so hard for so long for a wider role than the medieval mindset allowed. The habit seems to me to be a return to that mindset. If you need that outward sign so badly, do you really have the spirit in your heart?
I should have added, of course, “Let it be a choice, not a mandate or a universal ‘should’.”
Kudos to the “habits” that Nuns/Sisters continue!! When I think of vowed Religious Life – I think in terms of actions (for example, as exhibited @ Women & Spirit) rather than placing importance on “identifiable” clothing.
I find that wearing clothing not apart from the norm provides a few key factors: APPROACHABILITY and sense of “ONE OF US” (showing membership with everyone, not only a specific community). IMHO, these seem to be Christ-like!
Tongue in cheek regarding outward signs – how about a tattoo as a habit? The tattoos would be exceedingly cost effective and relatively low maintenance! AND the tattoo habit would “function well” whether at religious celebrations or meetings or on the rugby pitch or even the local swimming hole!
The Talmud states, “Cover your head in order that the fear of heaven may be upon you.” Personally, I would be open to wearing a kippah to honor G-d, however, the “latitude” has never been extended in my direction. I mention this as I would hope that if a Sister/Nun chose to wear a habit there would be some latitude to accommodate this, and vice versa. Praying for a two-way street with elements of inclusion!
Good points, Zeke!
I had to look up “kippah,” and one of the first references that came up on Google showed a kippah with a Batman logo painted on it!
Marg
i tend to think that those who equate the habit with vocation are looking at the wrong thing. a lifetime of commitment based on what one wears cannot last, as clothing is just a covering and the heart of any vocation is in the heart of the person with the vocation. just because it isn’t hanging off one’s body does not mean one’s vocation isn’t real or true. what would we say if someone became a sister simply to wear a habit? the true vocation shines through even without a physical covering to herald its existence. a police officer’s uniform does not guarantee the person in the uniform is a nice person. when clothing is imbued with meaning from outside, it is easy to miss the person under the clothes. i think it takes a very strong person to know who she is without a habit to define her.
I think those who are not nuns tend to romanticize the habit. I think there are positive values in wearing the habit – sign value, if you like – and it does have a certain congruence to contemplative life where it is highly symbolic of unity and of simplicity. But the sisters I most admire are those sisters who came through the changes of the 60′s and stuck it out – and now wear secular clothing. Their personal spirituality generally shines through in spite of their “ordinary” clothing – and I’m almost always able to pick “real” nuns out of a crowd of ordinary looking people because of the inner light that shines in their faces. That’s the “habit” that counts for me – the peaceful, kindly, strong, disciplined faces of those who have a healthy spirituality.
marsha, how funny. i recognize nuns, too, in their more modern “uniforms.”
Marsha–I was told that to spot a real nun you had to look at her shoes! Looking at mine I see sturdy, sensible, user-friendly, plain (read “ugly” lol!) shoes that support me as I do my ministry.
So, it’s a “habit of the sole,” eh, Sister? By that criterion, I joined up long ago! LOL!
The “habit” I would be reluctant to wear was the one that Dorothy Day chose: whatever she found in the thrift-shop that fit – including shoes that didn’t necessarily fit well – baggy, worn old coats and sweaters. That is a kind of self-forgetfulness that marks the truly detached person. I admire her for it, but I’d find it hard, I think.
me too, even as a sister/nun, I still like to look nice. I am a woman first.
I’m so tired of this old discussion of the habit. I thought we had long ago gotten past this exterior immature mind set. Let’s look more to the inner woman. A habit can also be a turn-off. I’d rather speak of our lifestyle as women who show care for one another and those around us. We can preach the gospel without words or clothing that often asks people to treat us more special than others. Believe me, I’ve seen plenty of this. Some Sisters use it to get into movies for free and other such reasons. It turns me off completely. The time for wearing habits is over, in my book.
I just pray that those who wear it, do it with the right intentions.
Good morning. I’m a wife and Mom (two teenage sons) living in Houston. It makes me smile when I see our sisters in their habits — they serve as Holy reminders pointing to something greater than this world. Our world is starved for Holy reminders. I appreciate those ladies, who in addition to their sacrifice of choosing religious life, are choosing to wear the habit. I’m sure it isn’t always easy. Perhaps I feel strongly because I’ve met too many elementary-aged school children (majority) who say they have never seen a sister. Regardless of what you choose to wear, we are grateful for your service. God bless!
Thanks, Zoe! Appreciate your comment. I think we need to find ways to become more visible — in some cases by what we wear but in so many other ways by how we are involved with people in our local communities, parishes, schools, businesses, and of course online! May every person of God always strive to be a Holy reminder.
I completely agree, Sister Julie. While I wear a habit and believe there is a place for this, I also respect those who have chosen a different way. However, it does seem to me that often Sisters have swapped one form of anonymity for another. In the past habits masked the individual identity of the person. That was dehumanizing and destructive. However, today Sisters tend to absent themselves from parish life or from being known within the parish where they worship. I don’t mean to suggest that Sisters should not have private lives, but the apparent absence of religious from the everyday life of parishes is a significant problem. Partly that has to do with the difficulty in religious getting jobs in parishes (something I was just briefly educated on by a friend and need to learn more about), but partly it has to do with a new kind of culturally acceptable invisibility and resultant inaccessibility.
That’s a tough one, Sister Laurel. I am interested in this overall situation and also would like to delve more into your last comment about what you see as a “culturally acceptable invisibility and resultant inaccessibility”. On the one hand it would be great to see more religious — women and men — in the parish. On the other hand, there can be some difficulties with that, one of which you mentioned. Some thoughts …
1) Religious by and large have embraced the church’s recognition that all people by virtue of their baptism are called to holiness. With this has come an emphasis on and surge of lay ministry and lay leadership (religious of course are lay people too, but here I’m referring to those who aren’t ordained or religious). Many religious have helped train lay people to lead and to take over jobs that many thought only clergy or religious could do. I think as a result, religious are less inclined to stay in or move into parishes because of this great value in lay leadership. At the same time, religious have been called to new ways of being in ministry, ways that don’t always fit into job descriptions at parishes! That of course doesn’t mean religious can’t participate in parish life.
2) Religious apostolates have been broadened to include not just the folks in the pews (a very good ministry) but also those Catholics and non-Catholics beyond the pews, especially those who are on the outskirts, the margins … those who are outcasts, on the edges … those who themselves are invisible.
Re protestant habits: I would suggest your person contacts her local church leadership for permission. My Community requires that we have the written permission of our Bishop (Anglican) both to enter the religious life and wear the habit.
Sr Therese Parkin COS Cam
Community Guardian
Many thanks for the info, Sister Therese!