Plunging Neckline Or Turtleneck Attire

 Turtleneck attire would be compatible with what the Church teaches us? What criteria would guide us? Is there a Christian dress code or a catalogue of prohibited clothing? Far from condemning fashion, the Church invites us to place it at the service of true femininity. With discernment.
We might first ask ourselves whether it is not superficial to talk about rags. Saint Peter ( 1P 3, 3-4 ) exhorts well: “Let your adornment not be external, made of hair braided with golden circles and well-fitted toilets, but inside your heart in the incorruptibility of a gentle and calm soul. But this importance of the soul does not imply contempt for the body, which is the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” “Glorify God in your body! », Commands Saint Paul. These are the same virtues that must regulate our interior life and our exterior aspect.

“Modesty is modesty. It inspires the choice of clothing”, tells us the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2,522). “Never in history has the Christian condition singularly manifested itself. However, she asks the baptized that his clothing does not contradict his faith, that the exterior does not contradict the interior. This is why we will be able to discern a Christian way of dressing which will not only relate to modesty”, specifies Father Alban Cras in The Symbolic of Clothing in the Bible (Cerf, 2011). Because, he continues, there is also “a way of dressing according to places, states, circumstances. By dressing, we speak a language, and we say something”.

The Church lets us, judge.
Therefore, there are no strict instructions, except here and there specific rules as Padre Pio had given on the length of the skirts of his penitents – below the knee. Or those posed at the entrance of churches asking women (and men) to cover their legs and shoulders. “It is always difficult to indicate by universal rules the borders between honesty and indecency because the moral evaluation of an adornment depends on many factors,” declared Pius XII, the last pope to have carried out an in-depth reflection on the subject. “However, what is called the relativity of fashion about times, places, people, education, is not a valid reason for giving up a priori a moral judgment on such and such a manner, when it exceeds the limits of customary modesty. ”

SMILING TEENAGE GIRLS

Young girls dare to become proud and fulfilled women!

So, how to dress? “The Church lets us, judge, as with everything else besides! The first question is not that of the limit that I want to ask myself, but that of the excellence that I aim for in my social and emotional life”, estimates Father Ambroise, a regular canon of the Mother of God. Author of topos on the body intended for young girls, he always begins by reminding them of the meaning of the garment: “If it keeps our privacy, it also reveals us, it says who we are. Ultimately, clothing is linked to the dignity of the person. More concretely, he tells them two keywords: convenience and charity. Is this outfit appropriate? And then, does she respect those around me?

Seductive or seductive?
The pretty 21-year-old brunette, Clémence clicked one Sunday during a sermon: “I didn’t pay particular attention to the way I dressed to go to mass, until one day a priest explained to us that” at the time of the consecration, we were really at the foot of the Cross, before Christ. It wasn’t the subject, but I thought about my outfit. At the foot of the Cross, can I be dressed sexy or too casual? Can I distract my neighbours because I shock them or catch their eyes? ”

To help the young girls, Father Ambroise advises them to be “attractive but not seductive.” “The beauty of an attractive person radiates, that of a seductress captures, he distinguishes. We are beautiful to please others, seductive for our pleasure. The sensual person is in a relationship of consumption with others. He infringes on the freedom of the man in front of him by tempting his natural fragility. ”

How to be decent without being out of date?
But then, how to be decent without being old-fashioned. Between Lady Gaga and Caroline Ingalls, how to strike a balance? “I understand that we must adopt certain decency, but to evangelize, we must offer others a modern and joyful face and not fall into the caricature of the stuck Catholic. In a way, our appearance is a showcase for the Church,” says Sophie, 34, a catechist in a Nantes college. ” does not ask you to live outside your time, to remain indifferent to the demands of fashion to the point of making yourself ridiculous by dressing yourself against the typical tastes and customs of your contemporaries, without ever worrying about whatever pleases them,” Pius XII had declared.
Manage your time as the great saints did

Vocabulary for kids

From Padre Pio to John Paul II and from Saint Augustine to Saint Basil, discover in pictures the advice of the great saints to manage your time.
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Time is a commodity that is as rare as it is precious in our time. Pressed by work, leisure activities, smartphones, or social life, we sometimes forget to taste the present moment. But time is not a market value. He receives himself. He waits, he prepares.

Better managing your time for the great saints is not only to accept its mystery but also a great way to connect to the presence of God. Aleteia invites you to follow the example of some of its great saints who did not wait for the wonders of technology to acquire the wisdom of time and, consequently, of existence.