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mirrors and reflection


Katie Bell

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Hey:)

I have been talking with a few people regarding this and i wanted some thoughts.

Until now i did not know a Nun is not meant to look in a mirror or see her own reflection due to vanity.

Is this true of all community and how does this affect every day life?

I was talking to one ex sister who said in her community she was the only one to have a mirror because she had one for her ackny and this was only used in supervised sessions.

Katie

 

 

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None of the monasteries that I've been in have had mirrors. Sometimes sisters do need them (e.g. for applying medicinal cream), in which case that nun will have a mirror. I've never heard of a sister who needed a mirror having to use one supervised before, and that does seem unusual. But it's pretty normal for the monastery itself not to have any.

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AccountDeleted

The Carmelites don't generally have mirrors, but when I was a postulant I was allowed to use a small one to beat down my hair. In the communities where I wore a veil as a postulant, this wasn't necessary. There isn't a great need for mirrors if one isn't wearing makeup and covers their hair, but they could come in handy for adjusting the veil. Once I was a Novice, since we got up in the dark, I just used the reflection in the window to make sure my veil was pinned on straight. 

Active communities have different needs, so a mirror is a practical tool. It's not vanity to use a reflection for practical purposes, but it also isn't necessary to spend a lot of time looking at oneself either.There's a balance.

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HopefulHeart

The active communities I have visited had some mirrors, though not many. I believe the only mirrors I've encountered have been in or around the bathrooms. For example, in the dormitory area at one motherhouse, there was a mirror hung outside the bathroom entrance, and no mirrors were inside the bathroom. I'm assuming that the situation is similar in areas of the convent that are for sisters only.

Having fewer mirrors helps with detachment. Also, I think it promotes healthy self-esteem and acceptance of one's image. :)

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sr.christinaosf

We have mirrors. Never thought too much about it.  

Our hair does show in front (bangs) and mine tends to want to do acrobatics.  I use a damp comb and a mirror can help assure me that I have sufficiently tamed my bangs.  

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The community's I have been talking too have been Carmelite. And it was a former Carmelite Nun who had supervised mirror time.

I guess being drawn to cloistered life I have been exposed to a more regimented view of this than most. How ever i like the idea of  not having one. With no  access to any one who would give a dam.

Katie

 

 

 

 

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be_thou_my_vision

My former community has mirrors. They show some hair in front. Like Sister Christina said... we didn't give it much thought!

A lot of the sisters have professional jobs as the apostolate, so it is important to be presentable. This, we were taught and I totally agree, is not vanity; its communicating order and cleanliness in our appearance. 

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I've been in so many communities and never really noticed whether they had mirrors or not. I rarely look in one.

On reflection (pun intended), I know the Visitation sisters (cloistered) had mirrors. I think there was one in the bathroom of the Benedictine monastery I visited. The Carthusians didn't have any.

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Spem in alium

We have mirrors in our convent. I'm not 100% sure about other Sisters' rooms, but in my room there is a full-length mirror and a smaller one in the adjoining bathroom. I do not carry a hand mirror. I believe there needs to be a balance regarding how attentive we are to our appearance, but mirrors are definitely helpful especially as my hair is prone to going crazy whenever it likes to and so requires careful combing. Sometimes I've gone to a community gathering and to the amusement of my Sisters my hair has looked something akin to an explosion because I didn't use my mirror to check myself before I went. As we are often out and interacting with others as part of our ministry, I suppose we do need to be attentive. 

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Common sense seems to prevail here.  Constantly needing to check one's appearance could well become addictive!  In recent years, "mirror fasting" (abstaining from looking at your reflection for a set period of time) has become increasingly popular--and challenging!  My former Franciscan community didn't have mirrors...but, we certainly took advantage of any shiny surface!

Delving a bit deeper (and more seriously) into the meaning of reflection...St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney writes, "We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself." 
 

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Do you think that men's communities will also adhere to the absence of mirrors? I know that I definitely couldn't shave without a mirror!

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Men's communities, in general, are very different from women's communities! ;) I bet they have mirrors.

 

My former community had mirrors in the bathrooms. We were an active/contemplative community, though, and as someone said above, keeping an orderly, clean appearance was important, since we dealt with laypeople a lot. It wasn't out of vanity, it was out of courtesy (which is something St. Faustina talked about, actually). 

 

But I did visit a contemplative community that did not have mirrors. I understand why they do it.

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Do you think that men's communities will also adhere to the absence of mirrors? I know that I definitely couldn't shave without a mirror!

'Tis a shame that the ladies (me included) sometimes fret about a few errant strands of hair--when men shaving without a mirror can be likened to driving blindfolded!   Maybe we're not tactile enough.  It's interesting to see both beardless (shaven) modern male monastics (Benedictines, for example) and newer communities sporting full beards or less-than-cropped hair.  The latter was pretty much the norm in the early 20th century. 

The Carmelite monks of Wyoming are both tonsured and clean-shaven (other than the prior).  http://www.carmelitemonks.org

No mirrors in photos of their cells...so, perhaps they shave in the shower!

Likewise, the bearded Poor Friars and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal images on recent VS posts show monastics who have clearly (and simply) given up the razor!

 

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Sr Mary Catharine OP

We always had mirrors! In the old days it was polished metal mirrors from the trenches of World War I. There are still quite a few around. If you get the right one it makes you look thinner! :-) Not in the BR. Still don't. Some sisters have small mirrors they use for things like flossing, etc.

Who has time to look in the mirror and after a certain you avoid it! :-)

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When I did a live in at a convent with no mirrors at first my sense of interior decorating thought gee that looks weird with no mirror there on the wall where there usually is one but I got over it.  Getting ready in the morning without even glancing in one took some getting used to as well.  Luckily I have hair thats well behaved enough that a simple pony tail tends to contain it in some semblance of being presentable.  Washing my face ensured that Id have no eye crud or toothpaste all over and off I went.  It was weird as well to not even apply a dab of cosmetics but also freeing in a way.  Its not like I did a tour of anyone's cell or a survey to see if anyone else had a mirror but the sisters all looked fine and clean.  Im sure if someone was a mess someone would have told her "um sister your veil is on backwards" etc.

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