Catholic Warriors

On a hot, dry, California summer day a few weeks ago, I found a few little wooden pegs. I absolutely love miniature things, so I immediately set about trying to decide what I would tranform these into. I soon discovered, to my shock and joy, a whole yard and a half of white jersey fabric. Not only that, it was coupled with a smaller portion of black fabric. Now, I of course knew that I was destined, then and there, to help these simple, wooden pegs find their calling. Thus the birth of Catholic Warriors came about.

Yes, Catholic Warriors are little wooden Nun Dolls.

We have dolls of Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, Barbies, Twilight characters, and almost any kind of TV character, but does any one ever give their kids little dolls of our true heros? The people who daily uphold the world in prayer? The people who pray for those who do not pray themselves? The people who corageously throw themselves into the battle that is the spiritual life? Not usually. My dream is that parents will realize the importance of fostering religious vocations and holy bravery at an early age, and perhaps replace the Polly Pocket their child is holding with a little Nun doll.

Novice (White Veil) and Professed Sister (Black Veil)

The dolls pictured here are wearing the habit of the Norbertine Canonesses of The Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph. After I made the first two (One a Norbertine and the other a Dominican) I sent the little Norbertine to my sister who is a Novice in that Order. In her last letter she requested more, so I happily brewed up 12 little Sisters.

If you are interested in perhaps buying some Catholic Warriorsto give to your loved ones, distribute at a vocation fair, or simply using them to promote religious life, please leave a comment. Please be assured that I can make them wearing different habits, as long as they are relatively simple. They are $4, no matter what Order requested.

Thank you very much!

Pax Christi,
A Catholic doll-maker









Fun in the Apostolate!

Here's a collection of pictures of different Religious havin' fun doin' what they do. Enjoy. :)

Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

(These are actually Nashville Dominicans... But yeah...)

Daughters of St. Francis of Assisi

Fransican Sisters of the Renewal

Fathers of Mercy

Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael's Abbey 





Cistercians

Intense. Order. From their website:

3:30 A.M. Rise

3:50 A.M Matins

Interval

Lauds

Breakfast

Lectio Divina

7:45 A.M. Terce

Mass

Chapter

Work

12:00 P.M. Sext

Dinner

Work

1:30 P.M. Prayer

2:15 P.M. None

Recreation

3:00 P.M. Work

 5:00 P.M. Vespers

Supper

Free recreation

6:30 P.M. Compline

8:30 P.M. Retire

    The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as proper to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.”

Documents of Vatican II,

Constitution on the Sacred VI, Sacred Music, paragraph 116.

Daily Mass the center of our monastic life is the source and summit of all graces.

Reservation of the Holy Eucharistic in the tabernacle allows worship of the Real Presence of Christ to continue outside of the Sacrifice of the Mass

"In the meditative reading of Sacred Scripture, known as Lectio Divina,

we listen to the Word of God and take it into ourselves .”

We support ourselves primarily by baking altar breads

Recreations are an essential means to becoming a monastic family; true sisters in the Body of Christ



Community is a sharing in the simple joys of life

Faithful perseverance

in our vocation

produces the fruit of unconditional love

The Cistercian monastery forms an environment of silence and solitude within a community. In this atmosphere of quiet and separation from the noise of the world one is able to enter into the stillness of the spirit and encounter God dwelling within.

http://www.nunocist.org/index.html

Boo ya. Catholics are awesome.

Pax Christi!

The Norbertines



The Norbertines! One of my favorite orders. They've basically changed my life.

The Priests:

Abbey draws people from distances who wish to assist at the community’s liturgy.

St. Michael’s Abbey is an autonomous abbey of the Norbertine Order. The canonry currently has 48 priests, and 23 seminarians studying for the priesthood. All members of the abbey live a full priestly and monastic common life; with daily attendance at the choral Office in the abbey church and life in community.

The abbey’s principal apostolate is its school, St. Michael’s Preparatory School. Confreres also provide Sunday ministry at over thirty parishes and institutions in the diocese of Orange and other dioceses in Southern California. They teach at schools – from elementary to college level – throughout the Orange and Los Angeles dioceses.

Because of its ever growing number of young priests and its liturgical apostolate, St. Michael’s  Priests from St. Michael’s Abbey give spiritual direction and retreats to many different religious communities, both in California and internationally.
The seminarians conduct an annual day and night summer camp for boys on the abbey grounds for five weeks each summer, and teach in the community’s schools before their final vows and ordination. The time of formation before ordination is at least ten years for those who enter the community with a bachelor’s degree, and proportionately longer for younger men.

http://www.stmichaelsabbey.com/abbey/

Great, right? Well, there's also Norbertine Sisters; Contemplative and Active.


Contemplative: The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph

http://norbertinesisters.org/



(See the Postulant [in black] behind the last Novice [in white] on

the right? That's my sister ^.^)

(Oh, and the Postulant on the farthest right? Yeah, my sister. She's awesome.)

Active:



The Congregation of the Norbertine sisters is one of the branches of the Norbertine spiritual family which lives according to the Rule of St. Augustine in the spirit of St. Norbert. According to the teaching of Saint Augustine, the unity in mind and heart within our communities should overflow into love embracing all peoples.

The Norbertine way of life for sisters in the region of Czechoslovakia was suppressed by the closure of cloistered contemplative convents during the government of emperor Josef II. Our Congregation was founded in 1902 in Svatý Kopeček, Czech republic by Fr. Vojtech Frejka, O. Praem., from the Abbey of Strahov, to renew the Norbertine way of life in the region. The new congregation was started to perform external works while maintaining and preserving contemplative elements. Our Congregation continues to have a contemplative active character.

Our Charism is not expressed with a specific external ministry. Our main mission is to reply in the spirit of St. Norbert and the traditions of the Norbertine Order to the challenges of our times and needs of the church. As St. Norbert, we bring the values of the Gospel into today´s world, give witness through our common life, bring people to God through our liturgy, and invoke God’s blessings for all people.

The Norbertine sister is a woman with deep relationship with God sustained by daily adoration of the Eucharistic Christ, contemplation of the Gospel, and liturgical prayer. Norbertine sisters are called by God in the spirit of Saint Norbert to be real and to remain balanced in witnessing of values that are eternal and transcendental. All this is performed in a life of community with a permanent effort to be one in heart and soul in God. We allow the Virgin Mary to teach us to be completely devoted to God and to serve his people..

Like St Norbert, we want to bring the Gospel into today’s world. Here in Wilmington, we live our mission through ministering to the poor, teaching religious education, working in the book store, and in the parish office.

http://www.sppc.us/norbertine_sisters.html

So there you have it. A growing family, a deeply rooted tradition.

Pax Christi,

A Crazy Norbertine Fan Girl

Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

This is a relatively new Order that I found while searching the IRL (Institute of Religious Life) website. I don't know much about them, but their name, and habit, is pretty epic. Here's some info from their website:

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right whose goal is the honor of God and the sanctification of priests in the service of the Church and souls. Its specific aim is missionary: to spread the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ in all spheres of human life. Our work is carried out under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, to Whom the Institute is consecrated.



Recognizing the importance of a deep harmony between faith, liturgy, life, and the power of beauty in attracting the human senses to the things above, an integral part of the Institute’s charism is the use of the traditional Latin Liturgy of 1962 for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the other sacraments. Great care for a solemn liturgy, complete fidelity to the doctrine of the Church and the Holy Father, and awareness of the central role of Grace, especially Charity – these are essential elements of the Institute’s spirituality, which is drawn from its three co-patrons, St. Benedict, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Francis de Sales. Our motto, taken from St. Paul, is “Live the truth in charity." The Institute operates in more than fifty places in twelve countries, where our priests focus on the care of souls in many different ways. To assist our priests in their apostolic work, the Institute also has clerical oblates. In 2004, a community of religious sisters was canonically established to aid the priests in their mission through prayer and apostolic work.



Mission Statement

"The mission of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is to spread the reign of Christ in all spheres of human life by drawing from the millennial treasury of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly her liturgical tradition, the unbroken line of spiritual thought and practice of her saints, and her cultural patrimony in music, art and architecture. The Institute accomplishes this primarily through a solid and well-rounded formation of its priests, rooted in Catholic tradition and carried out at its international seminary in the Archdiocese of Florence. Our priests, conscious of the need for their own sanctification, strive to be instruments of God’s grace through their apostolic work discharged in the churches assigned to the Institute, its schools, its missions in Africa, by preaching retreats, teaching catechesis, and providing spiritual guidance. The Institute of Christ the King operates under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, to Whom it is consecrated."

(Epic Tridentine Mass)

(Postulants Taking Vows)

http://www.institute-christ-king.org/home/

Pax Christi!

The Purpose

The Catholic Habit is a site implemented for the sole purpose of introducing the many Religious Orders of the Catholic Church to you, the reader, through pictures of the Order's habit.

I got this idea from some emails we kept getting entitled "MY HABIT". The "HABIT" they were refering to was usually a pair of crazy expensive shoes, short dresses, or nail polish. However, so deep was (am) I in vocational discernment, that whenever I saw said emails, I couldn't help but think of the many beautiful habits I have seen. Consider my sadness upon opening the email and seeing, not happy and holy nuns and priests, but anorexic models instead. Oh, the woes of life. So here I am, hoping to share a little true beauty with the world, one CATHOLIC HABIT at a time.

Pax Christi,
A Romantic Catholic Girl