Song of Solomon 7:1 and stuff

These will be my footwear for the coming years (yes, I have a pair of each and fully intend to always walk on matching shoes). The sandals were bought by the Mothership. She pulled rank on me yesterday.

Footwear is significant in religious life. Some orders even named themselves after it: for example the “Discalced Carmelites”, meaning the “shoeless Carmelites” (O.C.D.), who took their sandals as a symbol of the reforms that split them from the “normal” Carmelites (O. Carm.). And Poor Clares, the cloistered nuns of the order of St. Francis, often don’t wear shoes at all (except a wooden plank with leather strap to protect the feet when outside).

For Dominicans, on the other hand, this picture indicates that my future congregation lives dangerously on the edge of… I don’t know, modernism?* Because hard-core Dominicans wear shoes, not sandals. This tradition goes back to St. Dominic himself (the man, the legend). St. Dominic preached in an area during a time where non-Catholic preachers established themselves by living starker poverty than the Catholic clerics, including walking barefoot. The Pope then told Catholics that they should prove their loyalty to the Church by preaching in proper shoes.

St. Dominic adhered.

And when he wasn’t preaching he took them off, and walked barefoot halfway through Europe.

There are still many Dominicans who wouldn’t be found dead in sandals. My congregation leaves them optional. And since I love wearing sandals, I am most certainly going to wear them. Even though I’ll have to wear them with socks (first year black, and after that… white).

I’m not wearing my new black shoes** yet, but I did wear my sandals to church. They’re the same brand as my usuals, but significantly dressier – I now have “Sunday sandals”! For some reason, I find that absolutely hilarious.

Now to find black knee socks, a black cardigan, and white blouses. The latter are proving annoyingly elusive. I might have to get my arms shortened.

*always a good one.
** I really really like pretty colours, so the insoles of pair #2 make me v. happy.