Category: Scripture

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Scripture

Bible 101: A Brief Introduction to the New Testament

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

June 13, 2022 7:17 am June 13, 2022

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As the Old Testament is divided into particular genres (the Pentateuch or Torah, the Historical Books, the Prophets, and the Wisdom books), a similar division of the New Testament can…

As the Old Testament is divided into particular genres (the Pentateuch or Torah, the Historical Books, the Prophets, and the Wisdom books), a similar division of the New Testament can also be helpful. The purpose of such a schematic outline is to orient the reader as he reads each book in this second half of the Bible. Knowing what type of writing one is reading can be extremely useful in understanding the text. For example, the Book of Revelation is a symbolic or allegorical interpretation of history and eschatology, the theology of the last things. It does not carry the same historical valence as the four Gospels, and it is not meant to be read as a literal historical account of the end times.

The New Testament literature can be divided more easily by genre or type of writing than the Old Testament because the contents of each book are more uniform.

Interestingly, as in the Old Testament divisions, one can perceive three categories of texts: the Gospels, the letters or epistles, and the apocalyptic genre. These correspond roughly to the three-fold division of the Old Testament according to the Jewish mindset: the Gospels are the new Law; the letters and epistles are similar to the Wisdom literature in that they contain doctrinal teachings, practical counsel and moral exhortation; and the apocalyptic genre can be compared to the prophets. In fact, some of the symbolic and allegorical imagery in the Book of Revelation, which can seem very strange to the modern reader, is very similar to some passages in the Old Testament prophets.

The Gospels

The texture of each section is different, which becomes almost immediately apparent as one begins to read. The Gospels are historical in nature, but they also contain a theological message. They answer: who is Jesus of Nazareth and what is the meaning of his life, death, and Resurrection? The four Gospels are according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Acts of the Apostles is also a historical-theological book and is almost certainly the second volume of a two-volume work that includes the Gospel according to Luke. A look at the introductory verses of those two works makes it clear that they are meant to be read together.

Epistles and Letters

The epistles and letters of the New Testament claim various authors, most notably St. Paul. He is the purported author of 13 letters in the New Testament, not counting the Letter to the Hebrews, which has been traditionally ascribed to him as well. St. Paul’s style is intelligent, direct and zealous. After preaching the Gospel in Israel, Syria, Asia Minor and Greece, he corresponded with the communities to teach and encourage them in the Faith. He was on a mission to bring the salvation won by Jesus Christ to as many as possible and did so through almost constant travels. Hence, his letters allowed him to keep in touch with many communities.

St. Paul also asked that the communities share his letters with one another, which they did.

Other New Testament letters are attributed to St. Peter, St. John, St. James and St. Jude. Like the letters of St. Paul, they include doctrinal content and encouragement on the path of virtue. Some scholars posit that certain letters of the New Testament, like 1 Peter, are actually homilies because of their pastoral tone and scriptural explanations.

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is in a category all its own as far as New Testament writings. The genre is that of apocalyptic literature, and it contains specific elements that, if not understood correctly, can lead to misinterpretation. For example, the use of numbers, colors and physical descriptions of monstrous beasts and cosmological disturbances is a symbolic way of describing and explaining the vicissitudes of history and the end times.

The apocalyptic genre is not meant to be read literally; it purposely describes events of history in mysterious images to offer a theological reading of that same history. The goal is to describe the theological importance of the events. For this reason, many scholars understand the Book of Revelation as a theological interpretation of the persecutions the first Christians were facing. The ultimate triumph of the armies of God over the bestial forces of evil and each person’s decision to worship God or bow down to the beast summarizes the Christian understanding of history: despite the horrific persecutions the Christians suffered, the war against evil has been won in the triumph of Christ, but each person must freely believe and cooperate with God to be saved.

The focus of all the New Testament writings is one: to bring to the world the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation he won for us. The diversity of literary styles and genre corresponds to the needs present in different communities and to the most effective way for the evangelists and other authors to preach the Gospel.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan is a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. She serves the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, as the director of the Office of Christian Formation. Read more from this series here.

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Scripture

What Did Adam and Eve Know?

Father Reginald Martin

June 1, 2022 7:00 am June 1, 2022

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When it considers our first parents and their original sin, the Catechism of the Catholic Church observes: “A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship [with God] only in free…

When it considers our first parents and their original sin, the Catechism of the Catholic Church observes: “A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship [with God] only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ spells this out: ‘for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die’” (No. 396). The tree, the Catechism teaches, represents the limits human creatures must be prepared to embrace. We depend upon God; our freedom is subject to God’s law.

God’s command not to eat from that tree in the Garden could not have been clearer; nor could the threatened consequences. That much, at least, Adam and Eve must have known. Likewise, they must have understood they were risking God’s friendship by their disobedience. However, we may assume they were unaware of the consequences for future generations and the results that have been fully explained only by later theologians.

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4 min read

Scripture

Jesus’ Secrecy In The Gospel

Elizabeth Scalia

May 23, 2022 6:25 am May 23, 2022

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4 min read

It has always puzzled me, in the Gospels, to find Jesus urging secrecy upon those He has healed. On the other hand, it never surprises me that the beneficiaries of…

It has always puzzled me, in the Gospels, to find Jesus urging secrecy upon those He has healed.

On the other hand, it never surprises me that the beneficiaries of his favor, like the two blind men in Matthew, ignore him and go off telling everyone about the wonderful thing that has happened to them. Their behavior seems wholly human, doesn’t it? It strikes me that Jesus was asking a lot of these men — to return to their families and friends with perfect sight and no explanation of how this had come about.

Jesus does it again, in the Gospel of Mark, when He heals a deaf man, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (“Be opened!”). Immediately, the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

This time He orders not just the object of His healing, but the people with Him, to keep quiet about His miraculous favor. In fact, the text suggests that Jesus several times asked them to pipe down about it, but to no avail.

When something great has happened in our lives, we want to share it with others, and this Jesus acknowledged in Luke’s Gospel, when He spoke about the woman who had lost her coin: “Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost’” (Lk 15:8-9).

This makes more sense. Something lost and then found is worth exclaiming over, and we are called to be witnesses to the Good News — to tell the great workings of God in our lives.

A few months ago, I made a general confession. It took over three hours, during which time I experienced such an abundance of genuine healing — at one point, I could literally feel a heaviness that had resided upon my chest for decades simply depart — that I urged anyone who would listen to do the same. I had swept my house and discovered something I had lost, and I wanted everyone to “rejoice with me.” Jesus would understand my behavior.

For that matter, Jesus himself acknowledged that keeping secrets is eventually a futile undertaking: “For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light” (Lk 8:17).

Perhaps the first chapter of Mark sheds some light on Jesus’ reticence; Jesus heals a leper, and urges him to tell no one, but to show himself to the priests. The leper spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside, in deserted places, and people kept coming to Him from everywhere.

There it is.

We’ve read stories of lottery winners who find themselves besieged by long-lost friends and family members seeking to benefit from the windfall. Those they help often come back for more assistance — all expectation, with little appreciation.

The “lucky” winner begins to feel like little more than a walking ATM, his humanity undervalued, his personhood no longer seen by people who have become blind to everything but what he can provide, until the cash runs out.

Jesus’ healing gifts could never run out, but perhaps He was trying to prevent needy crowds from seeing Him only as a means to an immediate end, devaluing His humanity and completely missing His message. Such behavior kept Jesus from entering “a town openly. He remained outside” (Mk 1:45).

Urging people to tell no one was a futile wish on Jesus’ part. He knew humanity too well to count on it. All He wanted, though, was to be able to walk openly among the people He meant to redeem, and to not be forced to remain outside, away from us.

A need for secrecy is past. Let us bring Jesus openly into our cities and towns and families, telling what He has done for us.

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5 min read

Scripture

Bible 101: A Brief Introduction to Wisdom Literature

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

May 20, 2022 8:12 am May 20, 2022

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The Wisdom literature of the Old Testament is an eclectic collection of proverbs, moral lessons, riddles, warnings, extended meditations, and philosophical inquiry and debate. It also includes hymns and even love poetry in the Song of Songs. The human authors of the Bible took an interest in more than just religious subjects, as anyone who reads the Bible can attest. The Wisdom literature is a prime example of that broad outlook.

The reason for this length and breadth of interest is that wisdom comes to us in many forms. There is, of course, the wisdom that we learn from God himself through revelation. There is also wisdom to be gained from human experience and reflection. For example, the question “What is it to be just?” or “What does the just man do?” can be answered from a religious perspective or from a more secular bent. The answers may be different, but they are not contradictory.

The Wisdom literature exposes us to both types of reflection, especially in the books of Proverbs and Sirach. Some of the proverbs or sayings could be considered truisms, but they do contain ageless, sage advice, along with a lot of common sense. For example, “Where words are many, sin is not wanting; but those who restrain their lips do well.” (Prv 10:19), or: “Unjust anger can never be justified; anger pulls a person to utter ruin.” (Sir 1:22).

Book of Job

Besides given sound advice, the biblical authors were not afraid to ask hard questions. In fact, they challenged inadequate understandings of wisdom and insufficient answers to questions about the meaning of suffering, diminishment and death. This, for example, is clearly the case in the book of Job. The question behind the book of Job is the enigma of the just man who suffers.

The answers given by Job’s friends, namely, that he is being punished for his sins or that there is some hidden thing he has done to displease God, are proved inadequate again and again as Job verbally spars with his interlocutors. The poetry of this book is powerful; according to some authors, it is by far the most skillful and elevated poetry in the Bible.

The final chapters are quite surprising because God answers Job, in a certain sense, but does not allow Job’s human intelligence to have dominance over the mystery of suffering. The poetry of God’s speech is breathtaking; his descriptions of the crocodile (Leviathan) and the hippopotamus (Behemoth) are fascinating. His descent into the conversation takes the form of a whirlwind, and that is what the poetry feels like.

Ecclesiastes

The book of Qoheleth, or Ecclesiastes, also does not shy away from critiquing canned answers to difficult questions. In this book, the “preacher” informs the readers that he has examined the world and “All things are vanity!” He proclaims in the first chapter: “What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!” (Eccl 1:9).

This sounds rather nihilistic. At times the author seems quite despondent, yet he also writes things like this: “Just as you do not know how the life breath enters the human frame in the mother’s womb, So you do not know the work of God, who is working in everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand be idle: For you do not know which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out well” (Eccl 11:5-6). There is a certain humility requisite for the wise man. It is not in our power to know all things, but we do have to decide what to do with the time we have.

Prayer book of ancient Israel

The book of Psalms is sometimes called the prayer book of ancient Israel. It is also the prayer book of Jews and Christians today. The psalms are written in poetry, and, like other books, the poems often have a parallel structure. This means that the verses are written in two or three lines, and the second and third lines are in relation to the first by interacting with its meaning. This can be through synonym, antithesis, the completion of an idea, etc. The lines within the poem can play together in lots of different ways. It can be fun to try and find the parallel meanings as one reads the psalm.

The book of Wisdom, though not included in the Hebrew Bible, also belongs to the Wisdom literature and is an extended meditation on wisdom, law and the just man. At the center of the book is a prayer for wisdom, which expresses the deep longing of each human heart for God, a longing that never goes away.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville. Read more from the Bible 101 series here.

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9 min read

Scripture

What We Believe, Part 11: The Church Cosmic

Father Joshua J. Whitfield

May 18, 2022 8:08 am May 18, 2022

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9 min read

At its source Trinitarian, the Church is the oneness of the Father and the Son opened up to believers in the Spirit. Beginning in the Upper Room with Jesus’s prayer…

At its source Trinitarian, the Church is the oneness of the Father and the Son opened up to believers in the Spirit. Beginning in the Upper Room with Jesus’s prayer to his Father, the Church leads us simply to follow what began there that night — what we’ve called the mission for glory.

Tracing that mystery from another perspective, it must be noted that the Church is more than what can be traced geographically, and more than what can be described interpersonally and personally. Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome, but clearly the Church is bigger than that — immeasurably bigger.

The Church, to put it a certain way, can also be described cosmically. That is, not only is the Church spread across the globe, and not only does the Church exist as the faith and joy shared between reborn believers, but the Church mysteriously encompasses creation itself — all of it. The Church is communion in Christ, who is the creating and redeeming Word (Logos) through which “all things” came to be (Jn 1:3). Some of the Church Fathers wrote about this, St. Maximus the Confessor for one. In and through the Trinity, he said, no less than the whole universe may be “deified” (Ad Thalassium 2). That’s because Christ created the whole universe. Thus, the Church’s communion, in a sense, reflects and signals the universal redemption and reign of Christ as Lord of all. God in Christ, in whom believers are baptized, is of the same substance as the “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:6). Thus, as Christ is the creating and redeeming Logos of all that is, so the Church is the sacrament (a sign) of that truth.

We see this in the Letter to the Ephesians. Believers are those whose hearts — curiously, the “eyes of hearts” — have been “enlightened,” because they “know what is the hope” and the “glorious inheritance” that belongs to them. That is, believers know that Christ, died and risen, sits now at God’s “right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.” They know that Christ is head of all, the “fullness” of all things (Eph 1:18-23). The word for “fullness” is pleroma, a quite charged term in early theological debates, for instance, in St. Irenaeus’s debates with various Gnostic thinkers. In one sense it means the fullness of God; in Jesus, for instance, the “fullness” of God dwells (Col 1:19). That is, Christ is fully God. Yet God is the fullness of all things. That is, God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists. Thus, Christ is the pleroma of all things, and the Church shares in Christ’s pleroma. Which is what I mean by cosmic, that the Church bears witness to the universal dominion of Jesus Christ.

This isn’t merely hyperbole. To understand the claims being made in Ephesians, it’s helpful to remember here how the ancients viewed the political and religious world. Politics in the ancient world was thought to be a sacred, semi-divine art. The emperor’s person was considered sacred and semi-divine, and so too the state. Also the natural world, again to the ancient mind, was sacred and semi-divine, controlled by supernatural powers both good and evil, and also by fate. For ancient minds, the world and the universe was terrifyingly enchanted. So, what Ephesians is saying is that believers, whose hearts have been enlightened, knowing that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father as both Lord of the Church and Lord of the world, of even the entire created universe, know personally a power greater than all other powers and authorities and dominions either political, angelic or demonic. They know that Christ is Lord over all of it, the same Lord in whom they live by the Spirit in the communion of the Church.

And think how liberating that is, especially for marginalized or peasant believers. It means that — believing Jesus is truly Lord over all things, the same Lord in whom believers now live and he in them (Gal 2:20) — one needn’t any longer fear the frightening powers of the world, political or demonic or otherwise. Even fickle fate is humbled by the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s easy to see here why the Christian message was so attractive to the marginalized. It’s easy to see why Christianity was considered subversive in the early centuries of the Church. If the Roman emperor is the semi-divine embodiment of the sacred power of the state, what does it mean for Christians to say, “No, actually Jesus is Lord”? You see the problem from the Roman point of view? This is why the early Church had so many martyrs. Imagine a young woman in late antiquity, for instance, coming to believe in Christ. Joining the Church, she decides to wed herself to Christ, embracing lifelong virginity. Immediately she’s done two quite dangerous things. First, she’s demoted the sacredness of the Roman state and the Roman emperor, thus becoming a political outcast. Second, by embracing a life of virginity, she’s rejected the patriarchy of Roman society, patriarchy more lethal and powerful than anything ever even thought of in Christian society. The father, the pater familias, wielded power of life and death over his children. And so, for a young woman to embrace virginity was an explicit rejection of the claims both of her father and society. This is why Christianity in these early centuries was considered by many a dangerous anti-family movement. Because, recognizing Jesus as Lord, Christians refused to recognize any other.

Christianity relativized all earthly authority and all earthly relationships — political, patriarchal, and so on — and so, it’s easy to see how this rustic Palestinian religion appealed to those oppressed in such a society. Christianity appealed first to the poor and the marginalized precisely because at the center of the Christian message is the story a powerless man who died on a cross but who also was raised above all powers, offering to any who believe in him a destiny just like his, all for “the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:11-14).

This tracks with what Jesus said during his earthly ministry about the kingdom of God. To talk about the cosmic scope of the Church is to talk about how the Church relates to the kingdom Jesus proclaimed. The kingdom, in a real sense, is “at hand” (Mk 1:15). Yet, it’s also something in the future, something we pray in the Lord’s Prayer will “come” (Mt 6:9). But the kingdom is also, in another sense, even closer — it is “among you,” Jesus said (Lk 17:21). It is fully present but also mysteriously not complete, not until it gives way to a new heaven and a new earth as John saw (Rev 21:1). “Kingdom” is another image given us to understand the communion of the Father and the Son that Jesus prayed for in John 17. It’s another way to describe the Church, although not entirely. The Church belongs to the kingdom of God; it is not itself the kingdom. The Church bears witness to it; it exists in the kingdom of God. This necessarily is a blurred mystery — the Church’s relation to the kingdom. The point is simply that the Church is no mere worldly organization. Rooted in the Trinity, the Church extends well beyond the measure of any human institution. It shares in the pleroma of Christ.

The Church belongs to a kingdom that is both visible and invisible, comprised both of people, living and dead, as well as angels. The Church belongs to the kingdom that is the “heavenly Jerusalem,” filled with “countless angels in festal gathering and the assembly of the first born” (Heb 12:22-23). In worship we acknowledge the presence of such heavenly colleagues, most notably in the Eucharistic prayers of the Church when the priest introduces the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy…”). “And so, with Angels and Archangels,” the priest says, “with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim…” (Eucharistic Preface I, Ordinary Time). When people gather for Mass, those present are not just those we see, but also angels and saints. Explicit in Scripture and in our worship is the belief in a Church both earthly and heavenly, of angels and saints co-mingled, so to speak, with us. This I’ve always considered a refreshing feature of Catholic belief. Because if the Catholic Church was only comprised of the Catholics you could see, that at times would be miserable, even unbearable. Who would ever want to join such a sometimes squalid group? But what we see of the Church isn’t all there is of the Church. It is encouraging to think that when you step into your parish church or some chapel or into any community of believers, you’re also stepping into a sacred country, the borders of which stretch beyond every visible horizon — into a cosmic Church as big as the cosmos itself.

Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books. Read more from the series here.

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7 min read

Scripture

Changing Names

Eddie O'Neill

April 26, 2022 8:30 am April 26, 2022

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7 min read

For the average student of the Bible, who starts his or her study ‘“in the beginning” with the book of Genesis, it doesn’t take long to realize that names play…

For the average student of the Bible, who starts his or her study ‘“in the beginning” with the book of Genesis, it doesn’t take long to realize that names play a significant role throughout sacred Scripture.

They reveal a certain characteristic, or mark an event, in the lives of people and the history of places. Names are sometimes changed as well. In fact, it only takes 17 chapters into Genesis before the great patriarch of Israel, Abram, becomes Abraham.

Why is that? Why does God change people’s names?

The short answer to that question is that a name change signifies a new call in life. It is symbolic of a new identity.

From Abram to Abraham

In the case of Abram, whom God would make Abraham, the change in names reflected a new status. At age 75, Abram is called by the Lord to go forth from his native land and begin a new nation (see Gn 12). He is told that he will receive a plot of land as far as his eyes can see and given descendents as numerous as the dust of the earth (Gn 13:15-16).

He was attentive to the Lord’s directives throughout his journey in the land of Canaan. When Abram is the age of 99, the Lord calls him and says, “no longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations” (Gn 17:5).

In Hebrew, the name Abram means “exulted father,” while Abraham means “father of a multitude.” The name change became a benediction of sorts. God memorialized Abraham’s obedience and faithfulness and blessed him for the road ahead. As the saying goes, behind every great man is a strong woman. Abraham had Sarai. God changed her name to Sarah, or “mother of multitudes,” and thus a new calling. “God further said to Abraham: ‘As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him’ ” (Gn 17:15-16).

God appointed a royal couple in Abraham and Sarah. The patriarch now has a matriarch, and she will give birth to a noble son, Isaac, who will continue to bear witness to the Old Covenant.

Also in the Old Testament is the story of Jacob, who becomes Israel. Jacob means “deceitful one” (literally, “leg-puller”), and the son of Rebekah lived up to his name sake. His older twin brother, Esau, points this out when he explains that Jacob took away his birthright and “now he has taken away my blessing” (Gn 27:36). However, God turned the deceitful Jacob into the “prince of God” as he is given the new name Israel just five chapters later. God says to him, “You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel” (Gn 32:28). Under his new name, he is called to be the leader of the 12 tribes of Israel and becomes a key Old Testament patriarch.

In with the New

In the New Testament, two notable name changes are those of Peter and Paul. Peter is the second-most mentioned name in the New Testament after Jesus. However, he wasn’t born Peter. His birth name was Simon son of Jonah (see Mt 16:17). He and his brother Andrew grew up together fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They were among the first disciples chosen by Our Lord.

“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Kephas’ (which is translated Peter)” (Jn 1:42).

Why did the Lord call this man “Rock?” Because of the mission he was about to receive. The Lord said to him, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it’” (Mt 16:18). The fisherman from Bethsaida had become the rock, or the building stone, of the Church. God had chosen him with a new mission. He was now a fisher of men. His new name gave him his identity as the first pope and leader of the Church.

A name change took place as well to Saul, who became Paul. However, it wasn’t God who changed this Jewish man’s name. Not unlike his contemporaries of the time, it is believed that Saul, a Hebrew living under Roman rule, would have acquired more than one name. The story of Paul’s conversion is narrated three times in the Acts of the Apostles. However, in none of these stories is God mentioned as the one changing Saul’s name. On the contrary, it is Jesus who says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). His new name is mentioned briefly in Acts 13:9: “But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him.” While the name change from Saul to Paul doesn’t exactly fit the same mold of Abraham and the others, it can be reasoned that it signified his new identity as the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Devotion to the Holy Name

Reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus began in the early Church. The apostles and the first disciples were the first to cultivate devotion to the sacred name of Jesus.

St. Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, writes, “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:17).

During the time of the Council of Lyons in 1274, Pope Gregory X issued a call to the universal Church to take up this devotion to the Holy Name. Soon after, the Dominicans took up the Church’s pleas and began preaching on the virtues of the Holy Name.

Why Do Religious Change Their Names?

In generations past, it was the norm that religious nuns and, at times, orders of priests or brothers ran Catholic grade schools. The presence of these dedicated women was regularly recognizable through their distinct religious habits, and quite often the nuns carried unique names.

For any third- or fourth-grader who had Sister Mary of the Cross as his or her teacher or Sister John the Baptist in the classroom across the hall, the question might have arisen of where did she get that name from? Didn’t her parents know she was a girl? Why did they name her John the Baptist?

The answer lies in the fact that the taking of a new name symbolizes the entering of a new state in life. Think of marriage. When a woman marries, she normally drops her maiden name and takes on the name of her husband. She is no longer a maiden, but rather is now a married woman.

While this tradition was most prevalent among female orders, it was not un-common for male religious, particularly monastic orders of men, to change their names when they professed vows or were ordained.

Customs varied on what a newly professed name could be. Sometimes the women were allowed to suggest a new name. In other instances, sisters were assigned a name. In either case the ultimate decision was in the hands of the mother superior.

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