Back in the Habit

     Are religious habits making a comeback?
     Last week I encountered a Roman Catholic nun. She was visiting a shrine near my home. Her order is new and growing.
     A few weeks earlier I chatted with a young woman in New Hampshire. She plans to become a nun after college. She'll wear a habit.
     Wearing a habit repudiates individualism. It affirms modesty and obedience.
     Back in the sixties and seventies, many orders of nuns stopped wearing habits. Decades later these orders are declining.
     Why are traditional religious orders--those that wear habits--growing?
     To quote the late Charles Nordoff, 'The fundamental principle of communal life is the subordination of the individual's will to the general interest.'
     Lots of aspiring sisters, it turns out, desire that lifestyle.