Our religious habit is an outward sign of our religious consecration. It offers a compelling witness of being wed to Christ, poor, chaste and obedient. We live, even in this life, heavenly realities of the age to come. By closely identifying us with Mary, Mother of the Church, our blue and white habit has a revelatory power which assists us in making manifest the presence of the Risen Christ and His Church through a ministry of presence to all those we encounter. Our visibility as a Religious Family enhances our call to joyful evangelization and inspires in us a fidelity to our religious consecration, calling us in every situation and by our whole lives to “bear clear witness” that we belong to Jesus Christ. (Vita Consecrata 25).
The Habit
We wear a religious habit as a sign of our consecration (Canon 669). The Divine Word humbled Himself to take on the garb of our humanity and to be wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger; it is in imitation of His poverty that we willingly exchange secular clothing for the holy habit (ibid). As a sign of our love and devotion to Mary, Mother of the Church, our habit is blue and white.
The Rosary
The rosary is a witness of our Marian Spirituality and our daily invitation to those we encounter to “contemplate the beauty of the face of Christ and to experience the depths of His love” (Bl. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae). The rosary we wear is a reminder to us, His brides, to sit at the school of Mary, where we learn to contemplate and meditate on Christ’s life “as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord” (ibid).
The Crucifix
We wear a crucifix as a symbol that we set Christ crucified as a seal upon our hearts and freely surrender our lives to Him. The crucifix is a visible witness of God's infinite love for us - the love that led His only begotten Son to Calvary. This sign compels us to love as Christ did, faithfully and to the end.
The Ring
During the ceremony of perpetual profession, the sister receives a ring as a symbol of her spousal union with Jesus. She wears this ring as a sign of Christ's infinite love and of her call to daily keep faith with her Bridegroom - that by persevering in charity she may come at last to the wedding feast of eternal joy. The silver wedding band is "overshadowed" by an image of the Holy Spirit (fashioned after the alabaster window of the Holy Spirit in St. Peter's, Rome) reminiscent of His overshadowing of Mary which brought about the Incarnation and His overshadowing of those in the Cenacle with Mary, forming the Church on Pentecost, and now in another "epiclesis", overshadowing our lives of vowed dedication to Christ and His Church.