The Habit

"One cold January I was at our sister monastery in the Bronx and had accompanied another nun who had business in NYC. My first trip to the Big Apple! The prioress had insisted that we have a little treat so we stopped in a café, anxious to get warm with a cup of coffee.

Imagine the scene: a little café full of people, either bustling about or chatting at tables while warming their frozen hands around steaming cups of java. Two nuns walk through the door and it seems like all eyes turn their way. One patron calls out, 'Sisters, you have made a lot of people happy today!'

We smiled our biggest smiles, the words warming our frozen cheeks. But what does one say to that?

I felt so small, so human, and so humbled that I just wanted to drop down on the floor and say, 'I'll try harder, I promise!'"

--From a wonderful, lovely article about wearing the habit, by Sr. Mary Catherine of Jesus, a cloistered Dominican nun (in Summit New Jersey). By the way, you can purchase a lot of lovely gifts from these sisters for Christmas presents. (HT)