If You Could Design A Habit...

[Lil'Monster]

I still think the Camo idea of a habit is the best of them all....

[PhuturePriest]

I could never found an Order. I would never be able to decide upon the Habit. I love the Dominican habit with the cappa, but I also love the Franciscan habit. I then also love the Carmelites, the Trappists, and even the Knights of the Holy Eucharist habit. I just wouldn't be able to decide. That's why I'm going to let God decide for me.

[Gemma]

The habit is based on the rule being followed.

Before doing anything about a habit, figure out the spirituality. My SD is the former prez of the defunct Fellowship of Emerging Religious Communities, and he said the founders would show up in the most outlandish habits because they were trying to cram too much into it.

Start with the Personal Prayer Rule, and let that branch out into what you visualize the community doing.

Rules and habits will evolve. And do your research into what's out there already. "Get lots of advice," my SD says. Read up on the lives of the founders. Publish a webpage and see what happens.

I dearly love this thread!

Blessings,
Gemma

[mantellata]

I always get a little nervous when I hear of a new community and the first thing the founder or foundress has to say is about their habit (usually given by God in a vision or some such thing). While canon law and [i]Essential Elements, and Vita Consecrata[/i] all stipulate that a religious must have a distinctive garb since they are called to a [u]public[/u] witness in the Church - if that's the starting point, one has to wonder. A habit is a great gift - but the simpler the better if the aim is holiness.

[AnneLine]

Mon, I think you may be out of luck. The closest thing to a soldier-style religious community is the Jesuits (the Company of Jesus, as in military company)..... they've resisted a female branch for centuries. So... I don't think you're gonna get that camo habit.....

You might be able to get away with something akin to this for a work habit IF you can find a team called the 'Hermanas....".

[img]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5175/5389560141_735870cd88_m.jpg[/img]

Edited June 9, 2012 by AnneLine

[Lil'Monster]

I am wearing a camo shirt that I made

[AnneLine]

OK... so... put a collar on it, make it LONG and add a veil. Voila! Camo work habit!

[Lil'Monster]

[mysisterisalittlesister]

Just off the top of my head...Cloistered contemplative habit:
BARE FEET for penance
White vail and floor- length white tunic for purity.
brown scapular
Black belt over scapular
Wimple
Still working on it!

Edited June 10, 2012 by mysisterisalittlesister

[maximillion]

I am a messy bod, white would never do though I like the purity thing.

Blue veil (under Mary's protection.) Novices wear white in juniorate and white with blue edge once in Vows.
Latte habit (I am food orientated) with blue over shirt for workwear.
Dark brown scapular.
Barefoot for contemplatives, sandals for the active branch.
Simple wooden cross with no corpus - for same reason as Carmelites.
Rope cincture.

[AnneLine]

More I think about it, Mon.... maybe a camo apron would be practical BUT you also want to have an ORANGE one for HUNTING SEASON, or we could have a LOT of unintended martyrs.....





Yup, DEFINITELY day-glo orange scapulars and aprons for hunting season.....

[Lil'Monster]

[emmaberry]

this is so difficult! I LOVE the Dominican habit--I think it is a great witness, especially for girls, in the world, because it so beautiful and (at least for me) hangs so gracefully. I also love the Sisters of Life long veils because they are so feminine. I began discerning because habits gained my attention, and I thought "what do I have to do to be able to wear that? It is so beautiful!"

Of course, my motives have changed, but God can use the darndest things to lure us in to our true vocation.

I also love the colors of the Srs of Life habit, although I do not like their shoes. if I designed a habit, the religious wearing them would have Chacos as footwear. They look so cute in them!

However, if I enter the Poor Clares, I will be honored and so excited to take their holy habit. Though the exterior can be so beautiful, religious life is truly about the interior reality.

[Lil'Monster]

Sweetness

[Queen'sDaughter]

Emma, could you, per-chance, show me what kind of sandals you had in mind? I am looking for footwear! Thanks.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Queen'sDaughter' timestamp='1339511614' post='2443889']
Emma, could you, per-chance, show me what kind of sandals you had in mind? I am looking for footwear! Thanks.
[/quote]

I think these were what she was talking about:

[img]http://justinsomnia.org/images/justin-and-stephanie-wearing-chacos-big.jpg[/img]

They look really comfortable.

[Queen'sDaughter]

I don't know...the strap wrapped around the big toe kind of gives me the willies.

[EmilyAnn]

If I could design a habit . . .

Black veil for solemnly professed, white for novices and temporary professed
Blue tunic, the same colour that the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church wear
Black scapular, worn over the belt
Black sandals (I cannot stand having bare feet)
Rings for the solemnly professed
From the novitiate onwards a medal with Our Lady of Sorrows on would be worn

Postulants would have a white blouse, long blue skirt and a short white veil.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Queen'sDaughter' timestamp='1339516342' post='2443916']
I don't know...the strap wrapped around the big toe kind of gives me the willies.
[/quote]

Not all of them are like that, though. Here are some different versions:

[img]http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Chacos2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://herpackinglist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/black-chacos.jpg[/img]

[Mary's Margaret]

Just looked them up: [url="http://www.chacos.com/CA/en/Womens-Main"]http://www.chacos.com/CA/en/Womens-Main[/url] They have a variety of flips, sandals, shoes and boots. The site also explains the unique design of the footbed. Oh, this is the Canadian site, but you can switch to your country once there.