Are nuns when they take their vows married?

[Angeldove97]

I'm listening to this testimony of this Catholic "nun" (there's information that makes it seems like her testimony is false and just wants to slander the Church) and she's saying that nuns are married to Jesus Christ in the same way that husband and wife are married. Do nuns take the Sacrament of Matrimony in the same sense?

That doesn't sound right to me.

 

[FullyMT]

It's an attempt to sacramentalize the vocation. Become a nun, sister, or brother is not a sacramental vocation. That said, many mystics talk about Jesus in a bride/groom kind of relationship.

 

[AMDG]

Some even wear wedding rings. (Check out the nuns on EWTN.) From even the "old days" nuns this was so.

Have even seen some decked out in bridal finery when they take their vows.

 

[Vasallus]

It's not unusual. Many priests wear something that looks like a wedding ring too.

 

[Memento Mori]

We are all married to Jesus - even the men - because we are the Church. Women religious have often used that language, but it's a reality for all of us. It's only expressed more piously in religious life. Marriage to Christ refers to spiritual union, or contemplative union, of which marriage is the shadow.

 

[Fantine]

Tomorrow is the feast day of a most wonderful mystic--Blessed Julian of Norwich.

And, because of her mystical insights, I agree with Jared.

Thus I saw that God rejoices that He is our Father, God rejoices that He is our Mother, and God rejoices that He is our true Spouse and that our soul is His beloved wife And Christ rejoices that He is our Brother, and Jesus rejoices that He is our Savior. (Ch. 52)

Julian is the patron saint of one of my children.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

We are all married to Jesus - even the men - because we are the Church. Women religious have often used that language, but it's a reality for all of us. It's only expressed more piously in religious life. Marriage to Christ refers to spiritual union, or contemplative union, of which marriage is the shadow.

Except for the nun, she is consecrated to Jesus as his spouse.




Jim

 

[KatherineS]

We are all married to Jesus - even the men - because we are the Church. Women religious have often used that language,

Yes. This was kind of a romanticized, saccharine way of speaking popular in the 19th century and up until Vatican Council II. You still more traditionalists speaking that way but less and less.

Women entered the convent in a bridal gown, a wedding-like procession and even her father "giving her away."

I think moving away from this has been fine. I always thought is suggested "becoming a nun doesn't mean you have to give up yoru girlhood dreams of a wedding!"

 

[Angeldove97]

Except for the nun, she is consecrated to Jesus as his spouse.

Jim

Hope nobody thinks this is a silly question...

So then what is the difference between the marriage of a nun to Jesus Christ and my marriage to my husband?

 

[Memento Mori]

Except for the nun, she is consecrated to Jesus as his spouse.




Jim

Jim, I would disagree with you if you are speaking ontologically. Consecrated life has the same meaning for both men and women religious. And as Fully mentioned, religious vows are not sacraments.

 

[BabyChristian22]

Yes. This was kind of a romanticized, saccharine way of speaking popular in the 19th century and up until Vatican Council II. You still more traditionalists speaking that way but less and less.

Women entered the convent in a bridal gown, a wedding-like procession and even her father "giving her away."

I think moving away from this has been fine. I always thought is suggested "becoming a nun doesn't mean you have to give up yoru girlhood dreams of a wedding!"

Nuns consecrate themselves to Jesus because earthly weddings are only a shadow of the ultimate wedding that is between Jesus and the Church. That's why when someone's spouse dies they are no longer married to them.

 

[AMDG]

Jim, I would disagree with you if you are speaking ontologically. Consecrated life has the same meaning for both men and women religious. And as Fully mentioned, religious vows are not sacraments.

He didn't say that religious vows are Sacraments. He said that nuns are consecrated to Jesus.

 

[Memento Mori]

He didn't say that religious vows are Sacraments. He said that nuns are consecrated to Jesus.

Right, consecrated to Jesus, but not as ontological spouses as in matrimony.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Right, consecrated to Jesus, but not as ontological spouses as in matrimony.

They are brides of Jesus Christ. He is their spouse, spiritually.

Some orders of nuns, make their profession in wedding dresses.

It's a spiritual marriage, not a marriage as man and woman here on earth.



Jim

 

[KatherineS]

theologically, a religious profession, by a man or woman (monk or nun), is the same thing.

If a particularly form of piety wants to speak of it as resembling marriage, that is their choice, but isn't really a Catholic teaching.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

theologically, a religious profession, by a man or woman (monk or nun), is the same thing.

If a particularly form of piety wants to speak of it as resembling marriage, that is their choice, but isn't really a Catholic teaching.

Ah, but they do treat it as a marriage. The novice who professes her vows, have often been dressed in a wedding gown.

Yes, it's not a marriage where children or sexual consummation takes place, but a spiritual consummation of the soul with Christ.

True, spiritual union is written about by the likes of St. John of the Cross as a marriage, i.e. Christ is the Bridegroom, the soul the bride.

But when a nun professes her vows, she professes herself as a bride of Christ.


Jim

 

[KatherineS]

Ah, but they do treat it as a marriage. The novice who professes her vows, have often been dressed in a wedding gown.

Yes, that was a 18th/19th century development. I think it has largely been abandoned since the Council. I'm not objecting to it, I'm just noting this is a particular form of piety that peaked in the 19th and early 20th century.

Yes, it's not a marriage where children or sexual consummation takes place, but a spiritual consummation of the soul with Christ.

I think that male monastics also have a form of spiritual consumation of the soul with Christ. Obviously, some of the imagery does not fit when men do it, but the spirituality is there.