Another great Dominican story!
This time the sisters get the spotlight. . .specifically, the Mater Eucharistiae Dominican Sisters of Ann Arbor, MI.
Recently, I found myself uncharacteristically glued to a game show because of a group of religious sisters. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, captured my imagination as they walloped through the American Bible Challenge this spring. I found myself voting every day and reminding my husband that I had a show I wanted to watch.
Now. . .we need a story on the Nuns and the Laity and we'll have a complete picture of Dominican life.
Just came across this...
ReplyDeleteThey aren't nuns! They are SISTERS!
DeleteNUNS:www.summitdominicans.org :-)
Who called them nuns?
DeleteI didn't; but I had never heard about that distinction either. I thought there were only nuns or consecrated laywomen.
DeleteYou wrote, "Now. . .we need a story on the Nuns and the Laity and we'll have a complete picture of Dominican life." and then MatheusFT gave you a link to the story about the Dominican Sisters so it seems the nuns were pointing out the difference...at least that is what it seems to me.
DeleteOh. OK, I now see. Yea, the difference btw nuns and sisters is sometimes difficult for non-religious to maintain. . .grammatically speaking.
DeleteNow I looked it up and learned another one...(HERE and HERE)
ReplyDeleteThese terms are indeed confusing, because they are often used interchangeably even though they have technical differences. First, let's look at the difference between nuns and sisters. A nun is a woman who belongs to a religious order and takes the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their vows are publicly accepted by superiors in the name of the Church and solemn. In general, solemn vows are professed by members of religious orders after a period of temporary, simple vows. When bound by solemn vows, a woman is a nun but is commonly called "Sister" (although some orders use another formal title, like "Dame" or "Mother"); when bound by simple vows, a woman is a sister, not a nun, and thereby called "Sister."
The Church makes legal distinctions between these two basic categories of women religious. Women religious who are actively engaged in some sort of apostolate are referred to as sisters, and those who leave the world and willingly embrace the monastic life are nuns. This gets confusing because either a sister or a nun is ordinarily addressed directly as “Sister X.” Thus people tend to think that the two terms are interchangeable—but they aren’t. While a cloistered nun is called “Sister,” this does not mean that all sisters are nuns!