Book Review: Looking Good: A visual guide to the nun's habit

A few weeks ago I noticed a flurry of posts on Twitter about a new book on nuns' habits. Featuring very basic illustrations, it described the habits of some 43 communities from the perspective of graphic design. The Daughters of St Paul were among the communities, so naturally I was particularly interested in the book! When they contacted me by direct message, I asked for a review copy, even a digital one. In response, they sent me a print copy of Looking Good: A visual guide to the nun's habit, along with a sweet note from one of the authors: "The nuns who taught me were its inspiration and get a thank you at the back!"

I brought the book with me on our concert tour, figuring it would be fun to leaf through while waiting at airport gates. Of course, the other sisters were also intrigued: many of them had seen the posts on Twitter--or the article in Wired about "nun fashion." (Confession: we all turned to the Daughters of St Paul pages first!)

Sample two-page spread: us!

What I found was fascinating and surprisingly accurate. (It helps that they had a Cambridge theology grad do the ecclesial stuff, including a marvelous appendix and glossary.) The text explains not just the clothing of each community but its deeper identity. That great appendix answers basic questions about religious life and the Catholic Church. (The author gets extra points for properly distinguishing between "nuns" and "sisters.")

Looking Good is published by GraphicDesign&, a UK-based publishing house that focuses on the intersection of graphic design and some other key dimension of life. Looking Good comes under the rubric of GraphicDesign & Religion. (My apologies to the publisher, but I cannot get their name to come out properly in this blog: the ampersand part of their name keeps coming out in code!) The contributors (several of whom seem to have had religious sisters as their teachers) noted in the Introduction: "Religious institutes have been using colour, shape and symbol to communicate their identity for hundreds of years.... Looking Good ... uses graphic design to present a resilient visual identity at a time when it appears to be in demise--and women's dress more broadly is under renewed scrutiny."

The rest of our write-up. Note our cross-emblem.

Communities are listed in groups according to the Rule that structures their life, with the page background corresponding to a color chosen to represent the "family" that follows a particular Rule: Franciscan (blue background), Carmelite (grey), Augustinian (plum), Benedictine (red) and "other" (green--that's where you find us). I couldn't really figure out why this order was chosen, since it is not chronological and doesn't appear to be by current numbers of members.

The full Carmelite habit was presented at the very beginning, article by article, since it has just about all the features that can be found in any religious habit. The first image is of a coifed, sandaled female form in a white shift. Page by page, the faceless form gets dressed like a paper-doll. Each successive element of clothing is identified by a little graphic (looking for all the world like the items in the periodic table of elements!); that graphic with its abbreviation (Co for "coif," Ri for "ring") corresponds to a short explanation of the item and perhaps a bit of history or some other detail. The reader becomes familiar with terms like "scapular," "mantle" and "veil" along with meatier words like "charism."

The GraphicDesign & team got creative in how they presented the habits of the various orders and congregations (yes, there is a difference; check the glossary!): the habit of a cloistered community was presented back first, indicating the "hidden" life of the sisters, with the face-forward view on the second two-page spread. The communities that are in the public eye were presented face-first on the opening page.

Four pages were devoted to each habit/community, with the write-up presenting the details of the specific habit (including any distinctive emblems or sacramentals), something of the history of the community, and any interesting or quirky information that seemed to add a bit of "colour."  While they depicted the contemporary habit of almost all the communities and noted any variations (they missed ours*), the designers couldn't resist presenting the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in their famous "winged" cornet instead of the simple uniform designed for them by Christian Dior.

Guides to nuns' habits were once a staple for young women in discernment. I remember seeing one from the early 1960's in our late 1970's novitiate library. Each community had a full-page write-up about their life and mission, with a black-and-white photograph (when available) of a postulant, novice and professed sister. (Our novitiate group agreed that the Maryknoll Sisters had the nicest habit of them all.)

While Looking Good was conceived (at first jokingly as a "field guide" to nuns on the street) as a "visual guide" and not a discernment guide, it very well could serve discerners who would like an overview of a large and varied array of communities of women religious they might not otherwise know about.

 - - - - -

*Most of the Pauline sisters in Europe and Latin America wear the standard uniform (not necessarily with the veil), while in French-speaking parts of Africa the sisters wear a blue printed wrap-around skirt and the typical woman's headwrap (in a blue print); in India, the sisters wear a sand-colored sari, while in Pakistan the common dress is a long blue tunic worn over pants, with a long scarf draped across the shoulders or around the head. All of us wear the emblem (which got special mention--and an illustration in Looking Good), a cross we receive on making our first vows. Also, just a bit of nit-picking: our habit does not (thankfully!) have the back pleat shown in the illustration. (Front pleats are quite enough to keep orderly!)

- - - - - 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (which can eventually enable me to get more books!). In addition, I received a free review copy of the book mentioned above, possibly in the hope that I would mention it on social media. I am committed to giving as honest a review as possible, as part of my community's mission of putting media at the service of the truth. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

When the Pope hits the Headlines

So it happened again between yesterday and today. The Pope made the headlines, and that means...a lot of people got the story wrong (or at least mixed up). Here's the official statement.

Many reliable sources clarified just what yesterday's announcement concerning the Jubilee of Mercy, the Sacrament of Penance (confession) and the sin of abortion:

• Sister Marianne Lorraine
• Father Thomas Rosica
• Canon Lawyer, Ed Peters  (Having--like Pope Francis!--gotten a good bit of my training before the current Code of Canon Law went into effect, I got a lot out of this post) 

Here in Boston, the Globe gave full-page coverage to the story, but bewilderingly chose to quote a Planned Parenthood representative (really?! Now?!) in two of the three articles. As much as we are told by the dominant culture that we must always respect other people's feelings, even to the point of using opposite-sex pronouns when referring to a person who doesn't "feel" like their biological sex, there is one feeling that is verboten, forbidden, the never-to-be-named Voldemort of feelings:

While calling the pontiff’s announcement “a step in the right direction,” Eric Ferrero, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said abortion is not something a woman should be ashamed of or have to seek forgiveness for. (The Boston Globe)

This denying of women their right to their own sacred feelings  makes the Pope's invitation to confession all the more pastoral. He didn't deny women's feelings, he affirmed them, and refers to his own personal encounters with women as his reason for making a dramatic (if, strictly speaking, unnecessary) overture:

[There are women who] believe that they have no other option.... I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to this decision. I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal. I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision. 

If large numbers of women (and men) did not feel regret or remorse over abortion, groups like Silent No More and ministries like Project Rachel and Rachel's Vineyard would not have survived or spread the way they have. No, Pope Francis recognizes a pain that women are not allowed to express publicly. By making this pastoral announcement, effectively advertising a forgiveness that has long been available (most, if not all, US bishops gave priests full authorization to absolve the sin of abortion), Pope Francis is letting women know that they don't have to deny their own experience. But they don't have to keep reliving it in secret, either.

Come to think about it, isn't that a helpful invitation for all of us, no matter what our secret, buried-down-deep, unacknowledged area of sinfulness is?

Afternoon meditation: Lenten Fridays with Francis--on a Monday

This was supposed to be posted last week! Oh, well. Now it's a Monday with Pope Francis...

Part of a continuing reflection on Pope Francis' Lenten Message 2014.

In the middle of his Lenten message, Pope Francis shifts gears. The first part was an extended meditation on the "Good News" poverty of Jesus: the revelation of God as Father, seen in the Incarnation, the Baptism of the Lord, and the image of the Good Samaritan. Now Pope Francis turns and looks at us.

"We might think that this 'way' of poverty [the way of "going out" from oneself to share the riches of being with the needy] was Jesus' way, whereas we who come after him can save the world with the right kind of human resources. This is not the case."

That one line pretty much nails it for me. The lack of "the right kind of human resources" will never be an impediment to God's work. Pope Francis comments further, "God's wealth passes not through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our personal and communal poverty enlivened by the Spirit of Christ."

Dorothy Day knew that. She wrote in her diary about a time when the Catholic Worker desperately

Dorothy Day, two years after
the founding of the Catholic
Worker (Library of Congress)

needed $200; it may have been for rent. Dorothy was determined that the Worker, placed under the protection of St Joseph, would live only of Divine Providence. She was very happy to receive a donation for $20, but when a needy person came seeking assistance (quite possibly for their rent!), she handed the money over. $20 wasn't going to cover what the Catholic Worker needed anyway. Sure enough, Divine Providence came through (perhaps at the last possible moment).

The saints rejoiced to find themselves (in the words of a prayer by Blessed James Alberione) "weak, ignorant, incapable and inadequate." Years ago my Dad found that line in my Pauline Manual of Prayers. "Boy," he remarked, "saying that every day will keep you humble!" But for Alberione and others of his spiritual stature, those words were not a form of self-humiliation but a source of deep joy. Having been called to a mission that surpasses our human resources, they knew that their poverty "in all things" (Alberione put that in the prayer, too) marked the place where God could fully and freely act. St. Paul's boast comes again to mind, "When I am weak, then I am strong!"

Can you name a place of "personal and communal poverty" where God was able to work apart from all the more likely human resources? Has this Lent opened your eyes to a new form of poverty that God is inviting you to place at his disposition?

Evangelization in "The Light of Faith"

Since I am on retreat this week, I have prepared a thought a day from Pope Francis' first encyclical, "Lumen fidei" (the "light of faith"). This passage (from #32) struck me as a wonderful description, even a definition, of evangelization:

"Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God's total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience.... illumining all reality with the love of God made manifest in Jesus, and seeking to love others with that same love..."

Do you ever think of evangelization in terms like these?

TOB Tuesday: John Paul II's "different" concept of human love

Getting into controversial terrain here by suggesting that a Pope offered a "different" vision than his forebears. What does Matthew Kuhner mean? And what is so "different" about John Paul's understanding of human love? What was that something "new" he offered the world in his Theology of the Body?

TOB Tuesday: Body Image

Sara Hulse is a graduate student in the John Paul II Institute for Studies of Marriage and the Family (in other words, a Vatican-established graduate school devoted entirely to the Theology of the Body). When our sisters went to Washington DC for the launch of the new translation of Love and Responsibility, they interviewed some of the students. (Look for more of these insights on future TOB Tuesdays!)

 

Year of Faith Resources (more!)

I just got back from the second session of a monthly downtown Scripture program organized by Chicago attorney Linda Weaver. (The first session was so successful that Linda got a grateful phone call from the Cardinal!) This evening's program was on the Gospel of Mark, with a presentation by the most enthusiastic Scripture scholar you ever will meet, Father James McIlhone. I filled my handout sheet with notes in all the blank space and even in between the lines of type on the page.

If you're in the Chicago area, it behooves you to schedule in a monthly trip to the Loop for this ongoing series that combines networking, nibbles and solid food for reflection. All the more since the December 11 presenter (on the Gospel of Matthew) will be Father Donald Senior,  a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. As the date gets closer, you'll find the details and registration info here. (I was delighted to learn that one of the people who attended this evening learned about it from my radio broadcast on Friday!)

If you can't make it to Chicago, you can still follow an online program by Father McIlhone; in fact, you can follow more than one. I suggest his current series, "The Biblical Roots of the Mass," which just started in October. (It is the Archdiocesan "Year of Sunday Mass," which when you think about it, is another way of saying "Year of Faith.") Once you catch up on the first talks, you can just keep up as the nine-part series continues.  (He also offers a program on the Gospel of Luke and one on the Gospel of Mark--of which we got the tantalizing one-hour summary this evening.)

What other helpful online adult faith resources have you found worth recommending?

Sr Helena and "Imagine Sisters"

In case you missed the broadcast last week, our very own Sister Helena Burns and seminarian Dan Rogers were on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" Thursday, talking about the "Imagine Sisters" movement. Dan is one of the "founders" of this social media vocational promotion fellowship. Since the broadcast, they've gotten hundreds and hundreds of new Facebook "likes" and one lucky individual even won a copy of Sister Helena's book (which is ideal for discerners)!

I watched it live, and live-tweeted about it, too. Other than the terrible make-up job on Sr Helena ("Malibu Barbie meets Sister Act"), I am bursting with pride over how well she did. Hopefully, that's not the last time Sister Helena will be called to Irondale, AL

Back from Baltimore!

I just got back from Chicago after spending the weekend with our sisters in Alexandria, VA. They graciously provided a car for me to get to Baltimore. (Little did I realize that entailed getting past the thousands of purple-clad fans who were streaming to the stadium!)  I went to take part in a conversation between bishops and bloggers, and many of the leading lights of Catholic blogdom were present.

The meeting was a prelude to the bishop's semi-annual meeting (which begins today, and which you can follow live on EWTN), and was meant to give the bishops a chance to get the first results of a study they had commissioned on Catholics and social media, and to meet with some enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics who are involved in social media as Catholics, and to allow those same enthusiastic, informed and dedicated Catholics to meet the bishops.

Here's an interesting fact from the study: 31% of Catholics who use social media wish their pastor or bishop would blog. (Are you one of those? What kind of content would you actually follow, read and share?)

Here's another interesting bit of info: The two most trusted sources of information on church matters are (in this order) parish bulletins and diocesan newspapers. Even though print is losing "market share" to digital media every day, it still carries more weight, even with young adults. You know what else carries weight with young adults? Word of mouth. (I am guessing text messages and other personal digital messages are in that category, but I haven't read that part of the study yet.)

I think the most beautiful thing I heard all day was in answer to Brandon Vogt's question (the bishops had their "Questions for Bloggers" session, and then the bloggers had their "Questions for Bishops"). Vogt's question to the bishops was "What is it you fear the most about social media?" And a response came from someone on the USCCB staff (I was in the back and couldn't always understand who was speaking). Anyway, that person said, "The bishops want to respond to every single communication, and they can't figure out how to do that in a timely manner, so they get overwhelmed." I was moved by that: that the bishops want to be engaged with the people, but--as one bishop commented--it won't just be people in their diocese who respond to their blog posts or tweets. (That would be overwhelming.)

I was also reminded by bishops in rural areas that their parishes and parishioners don't have the high speed Internet access that seems so ubiquitous. Nope. In parts of Missouri (never mind Alaska!), the parishes don't even want images sent with email: it takes too long to download.

The whole meeting was live tweeted (although that got off to a rocky start when the hotel wifi kept fading away; the USCCB had to set up its own router!); the idea was that we would live tweet, and our tweets would be scrolling in real time on the smaller screen you can see in the front of the room. (I stayed in the back because my own back is still acting up and I kept squirming.) Finally, the USCCB set up its own router and we were on our way!

You can follow the action by going to twitter.com/search/%23bspblog  (as I type this, their assembly is in fully swing, and Bishop Sample of Marquette MI is live tweeting, using #usccb12 !) In fact, here you can follow my growing list of Catholic bishops on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nunblogger/catholic-bishops

Or you can read the Catholic News Service write-up (which even mentions yours truly): http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1204754.htm