My friend Nicole took me out for a belated birthday event Friday night … a local community production of … wait for it … Nunsense. She’d spent the day with her screaming children and was happy to get out of the house. I was happy to spend the evening laughing. It was actually a sold out crowd and not bad for suburban community theater.
It’s got me thinking though about the cultural icon of the Catholic nun. Why else would there be tv shows (flying nun) films (Sister Act), plays (Late Nite Catechism) and musicals (Nunsense) about them?
What’s behind that, do you think? Yes the habits worn in the past and still today by some makes them easily identifiable. One of the jokes in the play was that it gives you instant respect – you don’t have to earn it. Then one of the other characters said something about how they should be careful what they say, there might be "plain clothes nuns" in the audience.
That made me smile. Call me a plain-clothes-nun-wanna-be. That’s me.
But there's more to it than the outfit. Any thoughts?
16 comments:
I imagine the habit is perplexing and fascinating to people because in our sex-obsessed society it says, "I've chosen differently." That's mysterious to the average person, who wonders why a person might set herself apart. Of course this applies to priests, too, but on the whole with more prestige, yes? No? I have a colleague down the street, he was one of the Catholic chaplains at the hospital when I did CPE and we serve churches in the same neighborhood. He is a Franciscan, and I know that even as a Protestant I respond differently to him than to other priests. I'm more *aware* of who he is.
In my tradition (the Congregational branch of the UCC), even a collar is rarely worn. I don't own one. I only robe at church. So I don't have that sartorial ID "card," although I am constantly aware of my identity as a person who gave her life to God. It's just not immediately identifiable to the world.
Rambling thoughts for a vacation Sunday morning...
It’s Sunday morning. I can think a bit clearer now :)
Thanks for the thoughts Songbird. I think that is definitely part of it. Men and Women Religious have set themselves apart. Not only have they chosen to serve God, they have chosen to live lives of poverty, obedience and (the big one) chastity. It’s still fascinating to me so I can see why it’s fascinating to others.
The interesting thing about the habit is that when Sisters starting wearing them, they were actually the simple dress of the age. I believe they were what widows wore. But as the habits stayed the same or in many cases got more complicated, simple dress kept evolving to be, well, more simple.
That's why "plain-clothes nuns" decided after Vatican II to let the habit go and wear the simple dress of the current age. Plus, as they were answering the call of Vatican II to answer the calls of the present age, I think it seemed easier to get out into the world and do social work and be with the people in simple clothes rather than acres and pounds of black wool serge.
But even "plain-clothes-nuns" are perplexing and fascinating to people. Perhaps more so. Here they have taken the vows and yet they are walking around just like everybody else. Present in the world but not of the world. Which runs into the problem I wrote about a long time ago where you can’t “spot” them and therefore modify your behavior – Great Expectations.
Of course I can usually spot a Sister. They often have a "look." And even plain clothes nuns have identifiers - usually a band on their left ring finger and a community identifier of some sort. The groovy sisters have, what else, a very groovy peace cross they wear.
If you're interested, here's the link I was unable to link to my earlier post on Great Expectations of religious - http://actjustly.blogspot.com/2005/05/great-expectations.html
Habits are interesting. I can't imagine dressing like that. I'm a 21st century woman and want to look like one. (Though my understanding is that when the various orders were founded they wore clothes that blended in. Times changed while habits didn't, so now they make someone stand out from normal society.)
I suppose habits may bring instant respect, but I think it comes at a price. It removes a women from the real world.
I've always said I can spot a plainclothes nun at fifty yards. I think it has something to do with the posture, the tendency to wear dark blue, the haircut and of course the shoes and jewelry. I always find myself standing up straighter around them.
You just know. I suppose it's a reverse calling.
Habits and respect aren't all they are cracked up to be. Sometimes it is nice to just blend in. Your Paulist Pal.
Point well taken Paulist Pal. Thanks for stopping by!!
i agree that it is because there has been a different choice - in this day and age, you could scarcely think of not having a family. it is such a calling.
i told my sister a long time ago that were it not for my family, i probably would have become a nun.
(you won't have to renounce your internet access, will you??)
Can I weigh in on this? I love seeing nuns in habits- it brings me closer to Jesus, seeing nuns and priests looking like nuns and priests. That being said, I am well aware that it is certainly not just the clothing that makes a person close to God- but it is a reminder, isn't it- to the person wearing the habit- that they have chosen a different path- and to those of us around her? I know in my own family, both my aunt and my cousin had switched to lay clothing after Vatican 2 and from then on, they seemed to have lost themselves and their identity. Now, again, it wasn't just the clothing- also the fact they had to make drastic career switches- now they just weren't teachers, but social activists- made a huge impact on them. Again, this is my personal experience and feelings on the matter. And how much was it the actual nun's choice to keep her habit or switch- was there any coercion on the Church's part of the order's part that they would stick with the habit or not? I am rambling, I know, but it is an intriguing topic! I always was on my best behavior when I was around nuns in their habits- you had to be!- but what's so bad about that?
The habit doesn't make the nun; the nun makes the habit. I like to think that our response to seeing a person in obvious religious attire makes us realize or remember for a moment that God walks among us - not necessarily in the religous but all around us. That's the main reason that I rather like some form of habit. Anything that makes people "Think God" and be aware of the awesome presence for even a split second is a good thing.
Hmmm... People obviously DO have opinions about the to habit or not question.
I have no plans on wearing one. I would feel like I was play acting rather than being me answering this call.
That said, I have no problem with those who feel called to wearing one. In fact, to answer your question Regina Clare Jane, with the groovy sisters there are a few (older) sisters who still wear a modified habit. They are obviously more comfortable, and it's their choice. And everyone supports them in that decision.
We, too, have sisters who wear some version of a habit and, up until maybe 15 years ago, new members could choose if they wanted the habit or not.
One sister took the habit during her novice year because she wasn't sure if she wanted to or not. When the photo of her (in habit) and her classmate (in lay clothes) ran in the paper, someone sent in a donation saying how wonderful it was to see a new member in habit enter the community. That clinched her decision, and she never put the habit on again after that. "The comment should have been about how wonderful it is to see TWO women entering, not just what I'm wearing."
Our now-102-year-old sister made the comment on the vocations video that she does not wear the habit b/c that is what the community decided to do. "If the community decides to wear shorts, I'll do that. I might not like it, but I go with the community."
For us, it's an issue that keeps surfacing. Identifiable dress or not? But, as one sister mentioned in one of the discussions, "Am I still a Benedictine when I'm in the bathtub?" In other words, are we merely defined by what we wear?
I see benefits to being easily identifiable. BUT I don't want to be treatly differently just because of what I'm wearing. For me, religious life is merely an extension of my "previous" life -- I'm still the same person, just with a different focus. And I think it helps for people to see that we're just "normal" people who do "normal" things -- that way I won't end up on some pedestal that I can't live up to. Part of my whole nun-denial thing was the fact that "I'm not good enough" ... being a plain-clothes nun, then, just shows that I'm trying. There's no way I could live up to the image that a habit probably creates for most people.
As a funny .... someone was saying the other day that a nephew (or someone) had talked to one of the visionaries at Medjorie and that the visionary said that "It upsets the Blessed Mother to have nuns not wearing the habit" -- raising the response of "Mary doesn't have anything more important to worry about?"
Steph - thanks again for sharing your real life experiences. A great addition to the discussion.
Isn't it interesting though how people have their opinions on this one?
I still think there's more to it than we realize or admit.
As to Mary .... I think she's got a lot on her plate. Don't know if religious attire is one of them.
(I'm late to the party on this one!) This is one of those times I'm glad we have a both/and Church. I agree with Richard and others who said it's great that seeing someone in habit makes people "think God" -- and I think seeing a priest or nun in clerical garb doing something "normal," like riding a bus (instead of just traveling via cloud), does remind people that taking vows doesn't mean you stop living in the world.
On the other hand, undercover nuns and priests can make people realize that, too, often in a more profound way. My non-Catholic friends were always surprised when I introduced them to the chaplains at my college, on campus or over dinner. "Did you say *sister*?" they'd whisper as we walked away. And I loved that, too -- they'd been fooled into relating to a priest or sister as a normal human being, chatting about something not-religious, because they didn't realize until later that they should have been genuflecting and watching their mouths and talking about God.
One more word in favor of habits, though: my Grandmother lived in a nursing home run by the little sisters of the poor for the last few years of her life. She'd had a few strokes and was basically non-communicative -- but whenever the sisters entered her room, she'd straighten right up at the sight of their distinctive white habits. They communicated the presence of God, and of the Church, to her when she most needed it, and it was very comforting for the rest of us to know that.
Sister, I look forward to weighing in on this interestng discussion some time later, but for now, for the record, I want to clarify one point that was made. The comment that the original version of nuns' habits was the lay clothing of the day when their community was founded (for some, it is said to have been the the clothing of the poor, for others, of widows, etc.) is simply not true in most cases, although it was for some. This is a bit of revisionist history that has really caught on. Some of those Congregations founded after the Council of Trent did adapt various forms of the lay clothing of the day, but the ancient Orders (from the 4-6 Century monastic movement from which the benedicitnes are best known) and the women of the mendicant movements (13th Century, from which the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinian and Carmelites are probably the best known) clearly patterned their garb to be a monastic habit, as did most all of the 19th Century foundations. Again, in the 1940s-early 50s we see the emergence of some new Sisters' congregations in lay attire (e.g. Home Visitors of Mary, Detroit). I appreciate that this is a very neuralgic issue among many Sisters (and Catholics) today. It doesn't help the issue to extend the life of misinformation. Thank you for reading.
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