EVERYBODY WEARS A HABIT OF SOME KIND

I was reading a fictional book the other day and it concerned a notorious criminal who went about in disguise.  In one location, the book said, he went about dressed as a Catholic priest.  This part of the book did not ring true to me and here is why:

When I go about town in my collar, people wave, say hello, and in general notice that a priest is in their midst.  I can take the same path 10 minutes later, be around people I know, and they don’t so much as smile at me.  I might wave and they will shyly raise their hand until it dawns on them who I am. 

“Oh Father!  I didn’t know it was you!  Are you incognito?”  And these are people who stare at my face every Sunday.  Nobody notices me - at least not at first, they notice the collar.  So for a criminal to go “unnoticed” by wearing a Roman collar just seems unrealistic to me.

It is why I am such a proponent for wearing religious garb in public.

EVERYBODY wears a habit.  If you want proof, go to a Rubber Ducks or any professional sports game and see how many habits you will come across.  You know who the hipsters are, you know who corporate America is, you know the Goths (are they still around?), you know who supports you team and you know who supports the competition.  

I understand that we want to blend in so that we are not “put apart from” the rest of the world.  I get that thought.  But gone too far to an extreme we blend in so well that we disappear.  

FINDING JESUS ON SOMEONE'S FRONT LAWN

“Nan” as we will call her was baptized Catholic and was nominally instructed in the faith. Like so many of her (our) generation she slipped away from the practice of the faith and went in search of spiritualities and faiths that were more relevant (or so she thought) to her and what she valued in the world. There was quite a bit of dabbling here and there with much interested in Eastern religions. In her circle of friends there was great openness in this search and much support. The only place they were sure truth did not roost was in Catholicism. It was at these great gates that openness and acceptance ended because they were all pretty much in agreement that searching there was a waste of time. Which was fine.

Until it wasn’t.

An avid bargain shopper, a person after my own heart who likes to see what other people put out on their lawn to sell, one day she came across a Jesus night light. It looks like any other statue of the sacred heart you might see but there is a cord sticking out of the back of his heal. If you plug him in an internal bulb brightens and the statue of Jesus becomes, if not the light of the world, a light for the bedroom.

This got her daughter asking questions and before you know it she and her daughter (father and son are still dubious) coming to Mass. The marriage was recognized in the Church, the girl made her first communion, and Nan started going to confession.

A bit of a free spirit she found rediscovering her roots in a whole new “light” quite “cool.” She has also become quite the missionary returning to her friends and proclaiming what path she was following and that if they truly wanted to be considered tolerant and open in the search for truth that they needed to at least look into the true teachings of Catholicism.

Wow.

If all Catholics were so confident and bold I could take a lot of naps.

This past weekend she approached me at Donut Sunday in a heightened level of excitement. She was at a friend’s house scrounging for a book to read and happened upon “The Rule of Saint Benedict.” (I mean, come on, WHO has the rule of Saint Benedict just sitting on their shelf?” “I can’t stop reading it!” she exclaimed, “it is like exactly what I have been looking for!”

She told how one of her friends (also a former Catholic) embraced much of Buddhism also looking for much of what she is finding in the rule. “I told her she has to read this! These are her roots after all. She has to at least be open to it.”

I think the spirit of Saint Paul got into Nan.

Anyway – that got me to thinking that it was not until I was much older that I realized that there were different spiritualities within the Church. The only thing that I was exposed to was a very generic Sunday going to Mass Catholic spirituality. Fortunately that really works for me. But it does not for everyone. That all the different orders in their (at the time anyway) habits were having different paths to the One True God and reaching Him through these different paths within the Church Jesus founded had never even occurred to me.

For example think about the spirituality of Saint Francis. Today we hear about the rise of all kinds of semi-pagan (if not full blown pagan) spiritualities sprouting up with people on a spiritual search. If they are not out and out worshipping nature itself they wish to be joined more closely to nature, to live a simpler life, to make less of a damaging impact on the world, to be better connected in peace and love with one another and God. Who would be more in agreement than St. Francis? Expect with St. Francis one does not have to worship nature which is a creation, but while holding it in extreme respect as a cherished gift from God do then in turn worship the one true God that is the Creator of the nature they so respect. I know this is way too simplistic but you get the idea. (This post is already getting quite long.)

But if something seems lacking to you it may be that you just have not yet plugged into a very legitimate spirituality within the Church that can help nourish you. Unfortunately we do not do a very good job of advertising them (and without religious around us who are recognizable or to give an example their spiritualities become even more obscure.) So search. I hope you do not have to wait to accidently come across a book on somebody’s shelf.

MONDAY DIARY - COLLARED

Last week was the Akron Art Expo and on Sunday after the Mass schedule Fr. P. and I decided to go walk over for a peek. It was hot and I asked Father, “Do you want to go over in shorts or like clerics.” Here’s where it is fun being with a bloke who is new and on fire with the priesthood. “In our blacks of course,” he replied. Fortunately the streets in this part of Akron are lined with giant shade trees and so it was not so bad. If nuns could survive in full habits over the centuries I could survive in light cotton black shirt.

It does make a difference. On Saturday having the dog out on a walk (I was in shorts) I spied a coffee table that Father could use in his room at a yard sale. Back at the rectory I grabbed him and we walked to the sale, bought the table and walked it back home. I man stopped me at Mass this weekend and said he saw Fr. P. walking down the street carrying furniture with a homeless man and was he not just grand. *sigh*

Anyway, back at the Expo, I got stuck unusually long waiting for a deep fried Oreo (O my) and when I finally got my deep fried treat Fr. was in a deep conversation with a young man. He had left the Church some time ago for all of the usual reasons – gay marriage – abortion – etc. – and came up to Father and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” One must ask these days. It seems so many people are wearing these popish collars. “I was wondering if I could talk to you . . .”

It seems that I write a lot about visible clergy but every so often it is reinforced in my book (not every agrees) how terribly important it is.

Okay - the picture here came up in a search for "priests in a crowd." This is a "Hunk Priest of the Month Calendar." I couldn't beleive it. But here it is.

BUT SHOULD STEELERS FANS WEAR THEIR JERSEYS IN CLEVELAND?

One of our more talented young priests seems to find himself regularly published in various Catholic mediums. This past week Fr. D. gave a heads up about an article he wrote that will soon be printed in “U.S. Catholic.” The article concerns itself with whether those in priestly and religious vocation should be wearing clothing that publicly gives witness to the vocation they have chosen. It is a very well written and intelligent article and you can find it here.

But what you might find interesting is that following the article there is a survey inquiring what you think about the issue. It will not take you long to realize that it is a heavily skewed set of questions, but you might enjoy engaging in it all the same. Presumably some of the comments will be included with the article.

Long time readers of Adam’s Ale will surely know the basic stance on this position from the person whose fingers stamp out these prose. In the end however it has to be realized that our opinions are not worth they cyberspace they are electronically brought up on. It is the same set of principles that will determine who will survive in the future in the contraception and abortion debate: those who are striving mightily to end their bloodline or those who enjoying full families. In regards to habits and collars versus no habits and collars, the practice that will flourish in the Church in the next twenty years are those that attract faithful, practicing Catholics that wish to adopt a vocation. Orders that attract young vocations will grow, those that do not will practically be gone. Priests also tend to attract to the priesthood similarly minded men. Time alone will tell where that is going (though it seems to be clear to many already.)

That being said I would like to share with you a couple of my answers to the survey (just in case the magazine is not wise enough to print them!) One is that it may be true that the wearing of the habit or the collar will not bring anyone to conversion but look at it this way; suppose a person is a Steelers fan. He may wear a Steelers jersey. I doubt that seeing him wear that jersey will make me Steelers fan. But it did make me think of the Steelers when I perhaps had no cause to. It may make me more aware that even in Cleveland there are Steelers fans. Who would have thought? It may cheer other Steelers fans that see him and even be a cause of friendly words between them – a recognition of what binds them. If I had been wanting to ask a someone who is a Steelers fan a question, I might take the opportunity. And it may make me think twice before cheering for the Browns in their presence.

A second question asked that if we expect priests and religious to dress so boldly, should we not expect laypersons to do the same? Should they not be encouraged to wear crucifixes or T-shirts and hats that announce their religious proclivities? That has a time and a place but is not necessarily so. But it is just as important a witness that lay people dress in such a way that shows their piety, their modesty, adorning the body as to bring the greatest respect and honor to it, to the virtue of chastity, and in showing respect for others and their Creator.

Those are my thoughts. If you have the time, go and read and share your insights!

HABITUALLY INHABITED HABITATS

There seems to fall a habitual silence when pro-habit and anti-habit nuns meet. Each has passionate reasons for doing that which they do. Long time readers of Adam’s Ale know that I have a pension for habits and collars in a country that is increasingly symbolically and visually oriented. But non-habited nuns did not discard their striking robes without heavy reason and debate and did so hoping to bring advancement to the cause of the mission of the Church.

One nun states, “Though it never succeeded completely, the habit was intended to mute personality, erase individual difference, short-circuit vanity, keep the world at a distance. At the same time, it placed the Sister in a position of high symbolic visibility. "Nuns were always on stage,"’ was how one wise veteran of the era put it. "That was what the habit was for." By adopting contemporary clothing, women religious made a deliberate choice to move off that stage, into the audience so to speak, and toward individual responsibility. "Moving into modem dress had dramatic impact," former nun Mary Griffin recalled in her memoir Courage to Choose, "It revealed to the world in general the human being underneath the habit. But more important, it revealed the nun to herself: it was an experience in recognition.”" (The rest of the article may be found here.)

I have come to realize that my desire for nuns to be habited was just that, my desire for nuns (and religious brothers) to be habited. Does it matter what I desire? No.

In the long run it will not matter if one thinks that wearing a habit is dangerous nostalgia or not wearing them makes them invisible and non-consequential, it will be what works, what promotes the kingdom that will prevail. After all there are many organization and lay movements that meet without outward signs and their activity in the world attracts others to their gatherings. Why could it not be the same with nuns?

Yet I see the large orders of our diocese, the backbone of the burgeoning, growing ages now fading away and the young women searching for religious life not joining these once flourishing orders but choosing to leave the state in search of something they are not finding here.

In contrast to the quote above here is an excerpt from a letter a newly habited nun of our parish wrote recently. “Taking the Holy Habit has really been such an honor, although I honestly feel much too young to have it on. But to be clothed in the white of purity, virginity, baptismal and bridal gown, wearing our weapon the Rosary at my side, covered in Our Lady’s Mantle and protected by her Scapular leaves me really humbled and ecstatic at the same time. To be living witness to the world, to be a sign of hope that there is more than the temporal is a gift. I am really a reminder for myself first that there is a God who loves me intimately, who chose to create me, and is thinking me into existence at the very moment, and then for everyone else of that same reality. And finally as my response to Him is complete YES, I cover my head, to reserve myself for Him only.”

I am almost moved to tears over this statement. Coming from her I know it is authentic. But the question is which life is sustainable; which order will grow over the next 15 years, the former nun's or the latter?

Peppered throughout this post are pictures of religious men and women. They were taken early in the day at the vocations tent at the FEST. I found myself wondering if the people at the other tables were actually religious or not and as I only had about 10 minutes between tours to take pictures, I didn’t have time to inquire. There may be a lesson here. But only time will tell.

Lastly, I do not wish to disparage any of you who are out there quietly plugging away at your vocation as a religious without a habit. We as Catholics get beat up enough without turning on each other. Thank you for your vocation. Thank you for the life you bring to the Church. Thank you for taking God's call in your life seriously enough to take vows as a religious. May God bless you and your mission.

Once again, here is the new site for religous vocations in the Diocese of Cleveland.

THE PRIEST AND THE BIRD

Walking out of the store yesterday I saw a pleasant enough looking young lady riding in a car. She had the window rolled down, her hand extended and her middle finger pointing toward God. At first I thought the thoughtful gesture was aimed in my direction, but then she caught sight of me in my Roman collar and her finger wilted like a wet, hot noodle in boiling water. Simultaneously there was apparently something that she wanted to look at intently in the exact opposite direction from whence I was standing.

Sometimes people wonder if religious garb is passé or unnecessary. Hollywood clearly thinks otherwise. If you need religious symbolism to get a point across, out come the habits and the collars (and the candles and the statues . . .).

I find it patently unfair that when some organizations (who shall remain anonymous) want to raise money all of a sudden out come pictures of nuns in habits that they have not worn for years. But that is because they know the symbolism does something. (That is not to say that there are not perfectly good nuns who do good work who do not wear habits.)

Think of a pan of a crowd in a news segment that catches a priest or sister in religious garb. For that instant, thoughts of Church, God, and Catholicism pop into mind.

When I was a baby priest, occasionally I would be walking down the street and catch a glimpse of myself with my collar on in a store window. It would jolt me into remembering that I was living a very public Catholic life involving powerful symbols and that my actions meant something to other people. It is not about me, a humbling lesson to learn, but about that collar and what it is supposed to represent.

For good or bad, symbols play a huge role in our lives. What a blessing to use this gift to remind people that even in a parking lot of a strip mall on a Thursday God is still present and that we should live our lives accordingly.