The UNVEILING...

[pipesndrumsnun]

Cute photo, Sister. Did you ever actually wear the original habit or was that a recreation? My congratulations to your Sister Rita on her golden jubilee. Ad multos annos!

Hi, Galician...

That is an authentic, original Sister of St. Joseph habit. A few of our older Sisters still wear the habit. I happened to be wearing the habit in honor of a Sister's (75th!) jubilee...we put on little plays and such to honor the jubilarians, so a habited Sister let me borrow hers (its OK...she had a spare!). The Sister who was in charge of jubilee that year recruited me to play the part of the Sister Jubilarian in her younger years...they all thought it would be fun to dress the youngest member of the community up in the "old habit". That was nearly ten years ago now (hard for me to believe!)...the Sister I was playing has entered eternity, but, like all of our Sisters, she had an amazing life story!

Thank you for your jubilee wishes for Sister Rita...I will send them on to her! She runs a center for the poor in one of Michigan's most impoverished cities (she has been doing that for approximately 15 years, after teaching for many, many years - teaching children all of the important subjects and teaching incarcerated adult men to read). Sister Joan will celebrate her 50th in 2009...she's spent 15 years teaching elementary children, 11 years as a principal, and nearly eighteen years running a parish! WOW!! I've got lots of work ahead of me to come even close to them!

Dear Moderators...I tried REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard not to mention religion! After a quick edit and a couple of word changes, I think I made it!

[pipesndrumsnun]

OOPS! For any of you who recognize the Sister of St. Joseph habit, the reason you don't see the large profession crucifix that most of your Sisters probably wore is because they would not have received it until first profession of vows...I was a postulant playing a novice!

[pipesndrumsnun]

P.S. again...I actually DO wear a profession crucifix in real life (very similar to our old ones, but a smaller version), but I just noticed in the jubilee photo that you can't see it...it must have slipped inside my collar.

[Galician]

OOPS! For any of you who recognize the Sister of St. Joseph habit, the reason you don't see the large profession crucifix that most of your Sisters probably wore is because they would not have received it until first profession of vows...I was a postulant playing a novice!

Then why were you not wearing a white veil? btw, I did recognize it as an authentic habit. I remember seeing the guimpes on your Sisters bouncing up and down in strong winds, and wondering why they still bothered to wear them in the 70's!

[demobud]

I remember seeing the guimpes on your Sisters bouncing up and down in strong winds, and wondering why they still bothered to wear them in the 70's!

I have to say it, because old habits die hard.

Please don't hurt me too bad......

[Galician]

I'm not going to say a word, no, I'm not. Truly, truly, I'm not.

[pipesndrumsnun]

I have to say it, because old habits die hard.

Aint that the truth!!

[pipesndrumsnun]

Then why were you not wearing a white veil?

The Joes have actually never had the tradition of a white veil...postulants wore a postulant "uniform" that included a short black veil, novices wore the full identical habit that the professed Sisters wore, except for one difference: no profession crucifix. Then, you'd recieve your profession crucifix at first vows and looked exactly the same as the perpetually professed.

[Galician]

The Joes have actually never had the tradition of a white veil...postulants wore a postulant "uniform" that included a short black veil, novices wore the full identical habit that the professed Sisters wore, except for one difference: no profession crucifix. Then, you'd recieve your profession crucifix at first vows and looked exactly the same as the perpetually professed.

Really? Hmmm, was that universal among the various congregations? I thought I used to see photos of local novices in white. but then, at my age......

[pipesndrumsnun]

Really? Hmmm, was that universal among the various congregations? I thought I used to see photos of local novices in white. but then, at my age......

I'm pretty sure it was universal for Sisters of St. Joseph. Lots of other groups of nuns had white veiled novices, though!