THE SYMBOLISM OF RELIGIOUS CLOTHING

HABIT

“Though the habit does not make the monk, it is nevertheless needful that religious always wear a dress suitable to their
proper order.”[1] Although the habit is not the cause of being a monk, it is nonetheless necessary (“needful…always”) for the
religious to wear a habit, because the habit does help to make him who he is.

Taken in isolation, the popular saying “the habit does not make the monk” seems to assert that clothing, being external,
does not matter. But this is wrong. Our clothing affects us and forms us. Clothing is much more than protection against the
elements. For human persons, clothing is symbolic: it is a sign of who I am and who I wish to be. What we wear forms us.

Our formation in religious life is primarily through doing and being. We learn to be Sisters by being Sisters. Our doing
includes what we wear. One learns how to pray by praying; one learns how to be a Sister by doing the things Sisters do and
wearing what Sisters wear.

Our habit is beautiful. It is appropriate that it be such, for we are brides of Christ. A bride ought to look the part! Our habit
reflects the reality that we are not brides in a worldly sense, but brides of Christ. The beauty of the habit is not the same as
the beauty of secular dress; it is an otherworldly beauty.

Our habit helps us to know how a Sister ought to act. You do not need to ask me whether you may climb the pine tree in the
back yard: your wearing of the habit makes it clear that this is not an appropriate activity for a Sister. A habit serves to
remind all who see us of God (it cannot but do so) and it reminds us of what a bride of Christ has to be.

Even the word itself “habit” give us an indication of the importance of the clothing. We are taught that virtues are good
habits. We acquire interior virtue by doing exterior actions. We form our heart and soul by exterior means. If we desire to be
generous, we begin by “making” ourselves do generous things. If we persist in doing generous deeds, generosity will begin
to grow in our heart. We will become generous and we will begin to love doing generous deeds. The external forms the
internal. We become more fully brides of Christ through the habit of wearing religious garb.

Many temptations are removed when we wear a habit: we do not tend to think about clothes; we are not so easily tempted
to be vain; our external actions are restrained by the habit. If we feel uneasy in being somewhere or doing something in a
habit, it is a clue that we probably should not be there nor be doing that. The habit is a tool of discernment!

Receptive Asceticism

Moreover, our wearing of the habit habituates our body and our soul to the ascetical life.

The habit is, after all, warm. Assuming that all of us would dress modestly before entering the convent, I do not think that
any of us would dream of covering ourselves head to toe, in quite a few layers at that, in the heat of summer! As part of our
particular expression of modesty, we keep our legs wholly covered, even underneath our long habit and the slip under the
habit. Our head is covered not only by a veil, but by a plastic cup, two layers! What a relief it would be to wear just a little
less (for example, on our heads)—but we do not dream of doing so, and we would not wish to do so. Our habit is an
ascetical instrument. By means of it, we “teach” ourselves to be detached from seeking our comfort.

The asceticism of the habit is very appropriate for us women. Women’s strength, even physically, lies not so much in great
one-time achievement as it does in quiet perseverance. A woman’s strength is that of quiet suffering. The Latin word for
“suffer” is passio which means “undergoing.” You will note how “undergoing” is receptive: we say “yes” to what comes to us.
The asceticism in our habit is a type of, you might say, “receptive asceticism”: the habit, as such, is not a penance, but the
habit may involve penance for us. We take that penance as it comes. The asceticism of our habit is precisely in its every-
day-ness, in our wearing it day and night, no matter the season, no matter our disposition. The habit is an expression of our
self-gift.
” We choose to use words which are distinct from words in the world, in order to make clear that our clothing is unlike
clothing in the world. We do the same thing in other aspects of our life: we call the room in which we eat the “refectory” not
the “dining room.” Why? Because we do not dine in the way that lay people dine. Lay people do not eat in silence, as we do
from time to time. We take meals in a different way, and it is therefore appropriate to have a distinct name for the room in
which religious eat. Words such as “cell” rather than “bedroom” are similar.

Each morning when we put on the habit, it should remind us that this is not a worldly dress, but that it is a particularly
Christian dress. We pray: “May the Lord clothe me with the new person.

Since, in religious life, we wish to insert ourselves into the tradition begun by the desert Fathers, we use the same name to
designate this part of the clothing.

THE SCAPULAR

On top of the habit we wear a scapular. Why do we wear a scapular? It seems a rather useless piece of clothing, which is
surely part of the reason that it disappeared in the habits of many religious in the modifications made after the Second
Vatican Council. Not only is the scapular useless, but it is even a positive hindrance. The scapular hanging down gets in the
way when you bend down; it blows into your neighbor’s face when there is a strong wind, etc.

The scapular is a piece of cloth which hangs on the “scapulae,” that is, over the shoulders. The scapular has been a part of
the religious habit since the time of Saint Benedict . We wear the scapular for the same reason that we wear the habit—
namely, as an external sign of our internal union with the tradition of religious life. The scapular has come to have symbolic
significance as a yoke that we carry on our shoulders, as is reflected in the prayer we pray as we place the scapular on our
shoulders: “O Lord Jesus Christ, who did say: My yoke is sweet and My burden is light, grant me patience in all my
adversities and fidelity towards the inspirations of Your grace.”

THE VEIL

In wearing a veil, we Sisters insert ourselves into a very long tradition, a tradition which pre-dates Christianity. In ancient
Greek culture, respectable married women wore a veil; that married women and widows are never to be in public without a
veil

Throughout the greater part of history, married women wore head coverings. Even Protestant women typically wore head
coverings during church services (a scarf, cap, veil, or hat).

The form of consecrated life that came first in history—the consecration of virgins within a diocese by the bishop—was
symbolized by the reception of the veil. The veil worn by the consecrated virgin is a bridal veil, intended to signify that the
virgin is a Bride of Christ. Given that the consecrated virgin and the religious Sister are brides of Christ, it makes sense that
they, like married women, should wear veils to signify the same.

Even if our contemporary world seems to have forgotten it, a woman’s hair is her crowning glory (cf. 1 Cor 11:15); the
symbol of her natural feminine beauty. The ceremonial cutting of the hair is a sign of the total gift of self; a sign that she is
giving all her natural beauty so that her life may be hidden in Christ. The prayer for the blessing of the white veil states:
“May this veil bless, purify, and sanctify this Your handmaid, so that her life may be hidden with Christ in God.”[3]

We veil ourselves for a similar reason : we hide what may attract others to our bodies, so as to emphasize the importance of
the “inner man.” The veil serves to protect us: it protects us from drawing unseemly attention to ourselves and it serves as a
sign to indicate that we are “not available,” even if the veil is no longer a common symbol indicating that a woman is
married.

It is important that neither our habit nor our veil be a shapeless cover. We are not seeking to hide that we are women, but
neither do we wish to draw inappropriate attention to our bodies. The veil is not ugly or unbecoming. It is beautiful, but it
does not draw attention to us as individuals. The beauty of our habit is not the beauty of our body. The beauty our veils may
have is not our beauty. We seek to draw others not to ourselves nor to anything we may have, but to our Divine Spouse. All
our garb is intended to convey that message… and it does! Without exception, seeing us makes people think of God.[4]

Our veil has a practical use, as well, namely, that it frees us from having to tend to our hair. We wish to employ our time and
energy in other ways, and the habit is a source of great liberation in that respect. We do not have to spend time purchasing
and selecting clothing; we need not expend mental energy on the daily question of “What shall I wear?”; we do not need to
spend time on arranging our hair. Getting dressed only ever takes a matter of minutes.

In some Institutes, Postulants already wear a “little veil” to indicate their intention to give themselves to God as Sisters. They
are already set apart for God and are being formed by the wearing of the veil. When they become novices, they receive the
full veil of the religious Sister. Their veil is white, to symbolize purity and chastity. The postulant bride, on the day of her
investiture, replaces the dress with the habit and white veil of the novice. With a joyful heart, she offers to God all earthly
beauty and exchanges it for the spiritual beauty of the longed-for habit and veil.

The black or dark veil of a professed Sister, on the other hand, reflects the style of a widow. This, too, is fitting. Although we
are indeed brides of Christ, we are in exile. Our union with Christ is spiritual, hidden under the veil of faith, in darkness. Our
vocation is eschatological: we live already now what all will live in heaven: poor, chaste, and obedient, given directly to Him.
“Religious play at being at heaven.” We are not in heaven, but we are preparing for it.