The habit and veil is a sign of consecration and witness to those around us. We take off the garments of this world and are clothed in a black habit that represents a life of deep repentance and conversion. The veil is the covering that stands as bulwark against Satan who often whispers to us in our minds The veil of the perpetually professed sister has a blue band, which stands for her consecration to Mary our mother. The scapular is worn as the yoke of obedience to superiors and ultimately to God. The belt around our waist is a sign of unity expressed as a braid of three individual braids. The first braid represents the Trinity, the second interweave is of our body, soul and spirit, and the third stands for the body, soul and spirit of others we encounter every day.

The cross in our belt is a reminder to us of Jesus’ mandate: “If anyone would come after Me. He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul.” (Matt. 16:24 – 26)

- Submitted by Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ

As a sign of our consecration to Christ, we wear the habit and veil.

Together they are the sign for all who see us that

• We know ourselves to be in the world, but not of it – that with Christ we can engage the world and not embrace it – our eyes are fixed intently on the Lord, and that after this life He will lead us to the place He has prepared.
• The special gift of prayerful union with God is a source of many graces for ourselves and all God’s people – that as Religious in the Church we want to follow Christ to the solitude of the desert to grow in union with the Father and to bring others to Him.
• That in union with Christ we choose and strive to serve others without counting personal cost so that they may be drawn to Him by a kind word or a gentle touch, by the many ways we express our faith in action.
• As the Holy Spirit descended upon the Blessed Virgin when she expressed her fiat "Be it done unto me according to your word," the same Spirit descends on us when we profess our vows to bring us every grace needed to faithfully persevere.

The habit and veil witness to the world that we know ourselves at once both to have been chosen by the One and that we have chosen the One - that Jesus Christ is truly our spouse and that we know we are not alone in this consecration.

- Submitted by Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Intercessor of the Lamb habit is the apparel worn by a consecrated hermit, serving as a sign of consecration to Christ and as a testimony of poverty. As a visible witness of the union between the hermit and the Church, it represents the total commitment to God through the particular Community. The Intercessors of the Lamb habit for Sisters is a white tunic, coming out of the Book of Revelation, “They washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb,” and the teal scapular, the mantle worn by Our Lady of Guadalupe in Her apparition. The Sisters have their tunic secured by cords with four knots representing the vows of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience and Zeal for Souls (Victim Love). The Sisters wear a teal veil once they make First Profession (novices wear a white veil), symbolizing their marriage to Christ, their Divine Spouse. The reception of the habit by an Intercessor of the Lamb takes place at the Easter Vigil, the beginning of the novitiate, at a ceremony of investiture or clothing. For the Intercessors of the Lamb, receiving the consecrated habit marks a Passover into a new personal identity of belonging entirely to Christ, deepening their Baptismal commitment into a new way of life.

- Submitted by Intercessors of the Lamb