http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i...fton.html#print

Seems there is more emphasis on what they will be wearing then what they will be doing or praying. Just seems strange to me. That is why the habit was abandoned 30 years ago. I don't know much about this order wanna be, but it should be none for something more then what it will be wearing.

I don't know if that is a fair criticism of Moss or her order. It could be a fair criticism of the ARTICLE and the focus of the writer, but this is not a press release, it's a news article. All Moss can do is answer questions; she can't control what the writer chooses to focus on, and the writer may be fascinated with the habit, as many people are.

But since PART of Moss' idea is to be present on the streets, in the habit, specifically to be "a sign" for people who may be seeking a sign, it is not completely off-track to talk about that habit.

I'm interested in seeing how this community evolves. If the Holy Spirit is leading it, it will bear fruit.

I was mainly critiqing the article, I know nothing personally of the community. It is sad commentary that they seem to focus only on the habit. I really know little about their apostolate and nothing about their foundress. Time will indeed tell!
Again, I meant no harm, just trying to understand.

+JMJ+

Alicemary,
I just looked at your profile, and it says that you are 55 years old! That means that when you were young, ALL NUNS wore the HOLY and SACRED HABIT! According to what I have seen and heard, this holy woman wants to FLOOD the streets with the Holy Habit as a sign of GOD!!! That is an important part of what they will be doing as NUNS! For the average person, much less a Catholic who is not in obedience to the Holy Father, do you understand what a great sign THIS WILL BE?! I, for one, am VERY GLAD that there is a focus on the HOLY HABIT. We need MORE SISTERS in HOLY HABITS! This will get us back into the Church, back into COMMUNION with ROME as OUR HOLY MOTHER!
I guess you are here because you LOVE the religious life as much as any CATHOLIC! SUPPORT the HOLY FATHER in wanting WOMEN TO WEAR THE SACRED AND HOLY HABIT! I DO!
I beg you, do not criticize this HOLY LADY for her desires! She will be a great FOUNDRESS!
Pax et Bonum forever and ever,
Beatus

Beatus,
I think you may have misread AliceMary's post.

Her comment is not a criticism of orders who wear the habit, nor is it an indication of her lack of faithfulness to the Holy Father, Holy Mother Church, or a lack of desire to see holy people in the world. It is merely a commentary on an article that focused only on a habit (a piece of clothing), and not on the fact that these women are giving their lives to Christ and are wearing this as a witness to Him whom they love above all. It doesn't talk about their prayer life, or the importance of having faithful women, both religious and lay, in the Church. It talks about their convent and what they hope to wear. (I only read the article quickly, so I could have missed something meatier, but I didn't see it.)

I may have misread your post. And if I did, I apologize. However, I think if you perceived anything more into AliceMary's comment than a criticism of a newspaper article (ie- a questioning of her love for the Church or support of faithful vocations), I think it was probably an error based in the difficulty of truly expressing oneself via computer.

In Jesus and Mary,
Lauren

Thanks Lauren. I wasnt going to try and defend my statements any longer, sometimes it is best to just let it die!! But you are right, I was only commenting on the focus of the article being a habit. I, personally, am more interested in reading what they hope to do with their lives and how they are going to live their lives then what is clothing them. And he is right I am an old fogie of 55 and give my opinion from that focus. But I dearly love religious life, will defend it and encourage it, but I speak my mind.

For which we are grateful

I was thinking... because I also thought there was a bit too much habit-covering, so to speak, both in this article and earlier things we read. If I was called to start a new congregation (please, please God, no!), I probably would have only the sketchiest outline of the life at first. Because even if you have a clear leader figure, like in this case, the real start-up involves several vocations, and they all have to fit together somehow. This means you can start with ideas about an apostolate, and a daily schedule, but in reality it very much needs to evolve as you live the life.

So - the habit is something they're all agreeing about, and let's face it, that's because it's a rather easy part (if it's ever easy to get several women to agree on clothing!). It only needs a few good seamstresses and someone with a creative idea the others like, too.

But for the apostolate there are so many things to consider - the real needs of the place they're settling in (which needs to be investigated), the talents of the new vocations (ditto), and in many cases a lot of training for the sisters and paperwork for the superior. So you can decide you want to "flood the world with habits", but how and when and where is something different.

The same for the daily schedule... this also depends on the apostolate (how many hours are they going to go "out"? at what times in the day?) and the sisters (if you're entering a place with a set daily schedule, you notice it almost seems to exist outside of the sisters... there's a flow, a rhythm, that's almost tangible on its own, but it takes a lot of hard work to get it at that level).

My bet would be that they're acknowledging this and taking it slow.

But we have no idea, of course

Now I don't know how it REALLY works but...I would think that lifestyle would just naturally evolve in a way. ONe would think you would have the core group who agree on alot of things or be open to a discussion but dont spend all their time talking because they are so busy doing. I don't see how you can have it all planned out. When I read of foundress' in the past...like Mother Rose Hawthorne of the Hawthrone Dominicans, I believe she started to do the work and others followed to help out in the work. From that the community sprung. I think alot of orders were founded by accident.
I don't know if that would work in our times or not. Our Bishops/Cardinals are businessman upfront. They like facts and figures.
Interesting topic though. Would like to hear what others think!

If you actually look at the article, only about 1/4 of it is about the habit. There's a bit about vocations (labelled "Recruits," another reminder that this is a secular article), a longer bit about Rosalind Moss, and one about the convent.



Pretty interesting!

Thought you might like to see some pictures (I stumbled on this this morning)
Enjoy! Pictures of the Daughters of Mary

Oh fun! Thanks for the link

That story about that six year old boy was very sweet. God used a very humble and endearing way of speaking to Moss. Interesting how he wanted to be both a construction worker and a trappist monk! Maybe he could start a branch of trappist monks who do that!