Why don't I do my own thing? I have very good reasons to me. Sometimes, however, I do seriously wonder with prayer if I should not do my own thing and forget all the latter, which incidentally I would not find difficult to do at all. We lay people stumble and struggle along trusting in God as we stumble and struggle.sometimes looking for a way or ways that is not going to be treading on someone's 'holy' toes somewhere and/or upsetting equally 'holy' Catholic cultural consciousness somewhere. Religious have their rule, continuing formation, their fellow sisters and their superiors to ensure that they 'live up to standards'. It is almost as if The Church as hierarchy does not trust secular lay people to clearly identify themselves as Catholic in case they do not 'live up to standards'. And I ordered it after a very long search indeed for something within my budget and nothing like a religious would wear. In an attempt at some sort of compromise, a middle way, I have ordered a silver cross with some subtle touches of marquisite with a silver chain.I figure religious do not wear marquisite. In the days before the religious habit was largely abandoned (and I do not contest for sound reasons), one could wear a cross on a leather thong or whatever in secular clothing and no one thought they were a religious - they did recognise however that the person was a committed Christian and usually Catholic Christian as well since other Christian faith expressions did not then wear crosses, nor was it an item of jewellery without meaning back then as very often it can be now sadly. It does seem to me almost as if religious have 'hijacked' secular clothing. The cross I used to wear was silver with a black cross embedded into the silver and everything about that cross, which I still have, was symbolic for me. My desire for some sort of identification is related to witnessing, not to imitation. I am not a religious and have no desire to be identified as one.
I took the cross and thong off and have never worn it again. by simply wearing a cross on a leather thong. Quite some time after that, a priest commented (nicely in passing - no sarcasm) that I looked like a nun. I used to wear a cross on a leather thong and had worn it for many years, walking down a main CBD street one day I heard someone call "Sister! Sister!" and when I looked a man was calling out to me. What I can't understand is why a lay person cannot wear some sort of exterior sign of Catholicity and of commitment to it - if they choose to do so. I was going to post this into a current thread in Vocation Station about religious and the habit 40 years later, but I decided that I would be hijacking and so here I am in Open Mic:
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