More Debate On The Habit

[Ephrem Augustine]

i do, rarely get strangers who offer to treat me, something i can understand why someone would feel uncomfortable about.
i dont however, get much of a negative reaction from anybody, if anything some of the reactions, i feel, are revelatory of a hunger and enchantment with things transcedent.

[HopefulBride]

Up until High School, I was educated by relegious sisters and brothers and I equated the word religious with being habited. That's just what I am used to, I didn't know there were sisters who did not wear the habit until I started discerning the religious life. I always understood the religious habit as a sign and indication that those wearing them are God's "special forces" team so to speak; I also saw it as a disarming tool that lets an otherwise unsuspecting lay person to know who they are. It goes back to the examples of the sister being approached on the bus and the priest being approached. Now I don't think it would have been possible if they were not easily recognizable.

Perhaps this is because of my upbringing and it might sound vain but I prefer the habit. To me, changing or removing the habit to fit the times is like those with the VOF screaming tha the Church needs to change its views because they are dated.

Just my two cents.

Edited October 2, 2010 by HopefulBride

[Mikaele]

Either way, a religious in a modern habit, no habit, or a more traditional habit has given his/her life to the Lord, and we have to respect that, and thank our Lord for calling them to live lives consecrated to the Church... but in saying that, I have witnessed some amazing things happen around priests and religious wearing their clerical collars and religious habits.

1) A diocesan priest I know was walking around the city. As he was standing at the traffic lights waiting to cross to the Cathedral, he heard a young girl say, 'Hi Father.' When he looked down, he saw a girl dressed in mostly black, with black make up, and a number of piercings- a 'goth.' He sat down and spoke to her for a few hours, and by Easter, she was baptised and received into the Church.

2) A Dominican nun I know was on an empty train. A scantly dressed woman got on at the next station and sat across from the sister. A few minutes passed by, and then the woman looked up and said, 'You know, there could never be two more different people in the world.' The sister said, 'What do you mean?,' the woman said, 'I'm a working woman (a prostitute.)' The nun looked up and said, 'you know, that's not so true, because God loves me, and he loves you.' She cried... and not sure what happened after that.

The Catholic chaplain at my university walks around with the Orthodox Coptic priest fully clad in their clericals, handing out holy pictures of Our Lady. Many people comment on how they haven't seen a priest in years, or in their whole lives.

A Capuchin I know walks around the city, and gets many people walking up to him asking him to hear confessions.

It's a great witness. A silent witness.

[Mikaele]

I'll just add one more. Just before WYD, I was out in the park outside Sydney Cathedral with one of my friends who is a seminarian. There were some girls in the park drinking- it was about 1 in the morning. They came up to me and asked if I wanted to drink with them. I declined, but started talking to them. They asked where we had come from, and we said, 'church.' After a few minutes of talking to them, a Dominican priest that my friend and I know in his full habit came up to us and joined the conversation. The girls started asking questions about abortion and other things, until we got to the Church' teaching on sex before marriage. It was pure providence that this priest taught theology of the body regularly, and started answering their questions. By the end of our conversation, he had the girls crying, and even heard their confessions.

Not that the habit makes religious any holier. But I think it is such a powerful witness.

[tnavarro61]

[quote name='Mikaele' timestamp='1286445251' post='2178320']

Not that the habit makes religious any holier. But I think it is such a powerful witness.
[/quote]

that's it! that's what i've been longing to hear/read!

i remember a priest who sports a long hair (and i think it's dyed; ) who said in his homily, "i look like Michael Jackson"
My brother and I looked at each other and frowned.

[LaPetiteSoeur]

More on the Felicians, and habit business:

I was looking through old pictures and discovered that since the campus minister entered the Felicians, they have gone through at least three different habits. That's so many! I can only see myself wearing one.

Then again, she did enter during the 60s-70s era, which was a changing time in the Church. But whatever the reason, habited vs. nonhabited, every religious is called by God. And they listened to Him..

Dieu vous benisse!