Modesty: The Prudence of Chastity

"Modesty is the prudence of chastity.  Ladies, be modest in your dress, in your words, in your behavior if you want to help men acquire and preserve the virtue of purity.  You can be an angel or a devil to a man.  He needs your help to stay in God's grace.  It is very difficult for  him to do this on his own power.  Some day you will be held accountable for what has been expected of you.  If you want the Lord's blessing, learn to be modest.  Men do understand modesty.

- Father Angelus Shaughnessy, O.F.M. Cap. - Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers, Summer 2010 Newsletter

More on Dressing Modestly

Thanks to Colleen Hammond's tweet I found the following blog post on dressing modestly.

A Few Thoughts on Modesty.

The blogger posted in good time considering that it was recently reported that the Vatican is enforcing modesty in dress for women visitors. See Jean's blog post here.

Personally, I often wondered why Catholic women have such a hard time dressing modestly. Why would you want to draw unwanted attention from some guys by the way you dress?  But more importantly, why would you want to take a chance of offending our Lord by the clothes you wear or to lead others to sin?  Our Blessed Mother's purity and modesty should always be our model.

I guess with everything there has to be moderation. It is not unusual to see women and teen girls at Mass with very short skirts, bare arms, plunging necklines and on the other spectrum, I have seen some women all covered up with long shapeless dresses, high collars, and a veil. Sad to say but these otherwise attractive women, did not look very attractive.

My mother often seemed shocked when women went up to receive communion and they were wearing sleeveless dresses or blouses.  Keep in mind, there was no plunging neckline nor were they backless or showing their tummies.  Yet, when my mother was growing up, if a woman went up for Communion wearing a sleeveless blouse or dress, she would be denied Holy Communion.

I have shared with you before that in my family, the women have always dressed modestly. That does not mean we did not have any fashion sense. One of my sister LOVES clothes. Yet all her slacks, tops, skirts are fashionably modest.  I am sharing a few photos of my sister to show how she usually dresses.

There is no need to give up looking good by dressing in unflattering clothes just to dress in a modest way.

Men and Modesty

Read it here

H/T to Jean at Catholic Fire

Modesty - The Prudence of Chastity

"Modesty is the prudence of chastity".

...Be modest in your dress, in your words, in your behavior if you want to help men acquire and preserve the virtue of purity.

Ladies, you can be an angel or a devil to a man.

He needs your help to stay in God's grace. It is very difficult for him to do this on his own power.

Some day you will be held accountable for what is expected of you.

If you want the Lord's blessing, learn to be modest.

Copyrighted by Fr. Angelus M. Shaughnessy, OFM Cap.
Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers

Modesty of Dress and Love of God

Here is another good article on the topic of modesty of dress:
Modesty of Dress and Love of God

Immorality in Fashions and Destruction of the Family

Garb that does not show a person’s self-respect as an intelligent and free being (and, through baptism, as a son or daughter of God and a temple of the Holy Ghost), contributes to a large extent to the present destruction of the family. It does this by favoring temptations against purity. It also does this by its vulgarity and childishness that corrodes the notion of the seriousness of life and the need for ascesis (self-discipline), all of which are fundamental elements that maintain family cohesion and stability.

The struggle for the restoration of the family by opposing abortion, contraception, and homosexuality will be much more effective if done together with efforts to restore sobriety, modesty and elegance in dress.

Question on Modesty for My Readers

Reader Elizabeth had a question regarding the The Forgotten Virtue - Modesty in Dress and in particularly another article she read Skirting the Difference: What's Wrong with Women Wearing Trousers

...This is the location of an article that I read and it interested me. I also read your article and comments on the "The Forgotten Virtue: Modesty of Dress" article.

I was hoping you could help me with I question I gained from reading the first article.

"Women often say they wear slacks because they are more comfortable or convenient for getting in and out of cars, warmer in winter etc., and shorts because the weather is hot (but it is even hotter in Purgatory!). But with a little of the ingenuity and resourcefulness for which women are famed, a judicious combination of articles of apparel can be chosen from among the contents of a woman’s wardrobe to enable her to wear skirts for many occasions – windy days and sub-zero temperatures, cycling, hiking and riding side-saddle, for instance – all without the need to wear trousers. There are some sporting activities which cannot be done in a skirt and so must be out of bounds for women. Sacrificing convenience and freedom is not easily done, but if a more restricted life-style for the sake of modesty and propriety is the path of greater holiness, it is also potentially one of greater sacrifice and will bring its rewards in increased graces."

The whole idea of feminine modesty is very enthralling to me and this paragraph in particular sparked my interest. The only thing is that the author did not go into detail about how these "judicious combinations" can be created. I was hoping that you could help me use my "ingenuity and resourcefulness" so I may become a better example to others.

I have replied to Elizabeth but I want to see what my readers have to say on this topic. I offered to pose her question here. Please feel free to comment.

Thank you.

More on Modesty - 20 Ways for Young Women to Claimt he Respect They Deserve

Ian has some good advice over at his blog ICatholic - 20 Ways for Young Women to Claim the Respect They Deserve

As for #3, I think this goes for young men too. It was very offensive seeing a young man wearing a t-shirt that read "I love B_ _bs" Nice, huh? I wonder how he would have felt if his mother or sister saw him wearing that shirt...

Modesty in Church

Inside Catholic's Don't Wear that Mini to Mass

Just read it.

Promoting Modesty in Fashion Modeling

The lovely Marie has written a piece on her blog Big is Beautiful on Pure Fashion where modesty is promoted when modeling.

A Celebration of Style and Virtue

As Marie wrote:

Teenagers also need help in accepting that they are beautiful no matter their size. On this site the models represent all sizes whether they be slim or curvaceous, mainly because their objective is to promote self esteem and to show that no matter what size you are, you can look fantastic.

I wish they had helped teens when I was a teen. It is not only the overweight teens who may have self-esteem issues, it also happens to underweight teens as well.

Padre Pio: Modesty in Dress and the Confessional

Thanks Sue!

The following is from Michael's Journal

"Padre Pio requested people to be dressed modestly to enter the Church of St. Mary of All Graces in San Giovanni Rotondo. During the last years of his life, he became even more severe, as fashions became more immodest. He drove away from his confessional, without respite, all the ladies he deemed to be dressed improperly, even before they entered the confessional box. So they had to put up on the door of the church this notice:

“The church is God's house. It is forbidden for men to enter here with bare arms and wearing shorts. It is forbidden for women to enter wearing trousers, bare headed, with short, low-necked or sleeveless dresses. It is forbidden to borrow dresses in the church to be able to go to confession.”

The last line of the notice was not superfluous. In the church, a few minutes before entering the confessional box, many ladies made a rapid change of clothes — dresses, smocks, rain coats — to make up for what was lacking. As soon as Padre Pio saw them, he muttered: “Go and get dressed, jokers!”

Padre Pio had the gift of knowing what was in a person's heart. The following is a story from the Confessional of Padre Pio:

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina will be remembered in history as “a great apostle of the confessional,” said Cardinal Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Like Saint John Mary Vianney, the holy Curé of Ars, Padre Pio spent over twelve hours per day in the confessional box, to hear confessions, and he often told the penitents in advance all the sins they had committed. Padre Pio could read into consciences. Here is one case:

The man who, one day, came to Padre Pio, was of that type of hard, cold criminals who will stop at nothing. This individual wanted to get rid of his wife but in such a way that his crime would be cloaked with a motive of piety. Under the pretext of going to see Padre Pio, he brought his wife with him to San Giovanni Rotondo where he planned to kill her in a most diabolical way. On arriving at the monastery, he went through the Capuchins' church to the sacristy. Padre Pio was
there, talking to some people. When he saw the man, he left abruptly, went to the man, and began to push him violently towards the door, shouting at the top of his voice: “Get out! Get out! Don't you know it is forbidden to stain your hands with blood? Get out!”

The unfortunate man was dumbfounded and, livid with rage, bolted out of the church, to the astonishment of everyone there. However, the strong words and behaviour of Padre Pio made such an impression on him that he could not get a wink of sleep all night. He began to
understand the horror of what he was planning and, touched by grace, was a different man in the morning.

He went to the monastery, and this time Padre Pio received him with great tenderness, heard his confession, and gave him absolution. To crown everything, Padre Pio asked him before he left: “You have
always wanted children, haven't you? Do not offend God anymore, and you will have a son.” A year later, the man returned to Padre Pio to celebrate his son's baptism and the confirmation of his conversion.

Basics of Modesty in Dress

Living in Hawaii and walking to church used to mean me attending daily Mass in shorts. When I knelt in front of the Blessed Sacrament and asked myself if Jesus would approve, I kind of figured the answer to that would be NO. As my dear mom would remind us, if we were going to see the President of the United States, we would make sure we were dressed in the very best of our clothing.


Bishop Yanta's Pastoral Letter on Modesty.