Years ago, I remember speaking with a gentleman in regard to the word “countercultural.” I was under the starry-eyed impression that as a Catholic girl attending a liberal arts school I was obviously entrenched in a countercultural experience. But his words pierced through like an electrical shock: “Mmm, not necessarily.” Wide-eyed and burning with curiosity, I pressed on, “What?! Why?”
He began to challenge me: Were my peers and I sucked into all the modern music, trends, films, etc.? Were we looking to the dictates of our “culture” or actively trudging against the tide, leaning into the Catholic Faith to guide us? Just a quick assessment as to how many of us dressed seemed to insinuate the former. This conversation struck a chord: being countercultural is a lot more than a solid education and saying, “I’m a Catholic.” It’s a daily challenge; a cross we must pick up.
It is easy to get caught up in the world and not even realize it. Gradually, our eyes shift away from God, and before long, our souls grow lukewarm. Earthly goods blind us from the Transcendent. Our Faith skews as we view it through the lens of “me” and how “I feel,” rather than conforming our will to God’s. As Michael Davies once explained: it’s the difference between the “God out there” and the “God in here,” where we confuse God as a “funny interior feeling.” Unfortunately, this confusion is often heralded as a good thing in modern Catholic circles. Catholics are encouraged to follow their hearts and go with the flow. Won’t it make our Faith more palatable if we just loosen up and blend in?
But in reality, we turn our backs on God and become enamored by the “God within.” It’s a recipe that invites all kinds of moral calamity. Instead of living in the light of eternity, being stalwart defenders of Truth, we descend willingly into the chaos of a godless world harkening the words of St. Pius V: “all the evils of this world are due to the lukewarmness of Catholics.”
The Issue of Dress
“It might be said that society speaks through the clothing it wears. Through its clothing it reveals its secret aspirations and uses it, at least in part, to build or destroy its future.” —Pope Pius XII
A notorious case of sliding downhill with the prevailing culture is clothing. We all have to get dressed. And in a world that celebrates the ugly, dress is a controversial topic, especially in Catholic circles. Anna Kalinowska’s book Clothed with Beauty addresses this issue with deft clarity. Many of us are familiar with the school of thought that proper dress is a strict set of rules. “You must cover what needs to be covered.” Yet, with exact measurements, the ensembles heralded as successful are often ill-fitting and frumpy. In fact, they can be downright ugly.
The next school of thought rebels against frumpy and recommends “fitting in” by utilizing modern trends as a way to evangelize. I admit, I fell into this trap for many years, believing that it was totally fine to dress in any trends I liked for the sake of being normal. However, our culture is not normal, and so looking to it as a guide for normalcy will only elicit heartache.
Our modern trends do more to thwart the truth of who we are “as beings made in the image and likeness of God.” We take a huge risk by going with the tide. In my own experience, this school of thought led to a rejection of modesty. Candidly, it seems a bit silly to argue that we are orienting men back to the Divine by donning a pair of ripped jeans or a mini skirt.
Clothed with Beauty is the only book I have read on the topic that not only understands the problem but is able to address it succinctly. Modesty and beautiful dress are by no means at odds. All the same, cultivating beauty is far more than just finding your personal style; it starts with our worship of God. Recalling to mind the expression “how you pray is how you live,” our worship of God shapes us in an intimate way. Does the beauty of our liturgy draw us to Heaven and fill even the most mundane aspects of our life with His goodness, or are we trapped in the horizontal wasteland?
Miss Kalinowska writes: “Cultivating involves an entire re-evaluation of our way of life.” This re-evaluation will demand sacrifice. Many of us, caught in the tide, are addicted to cheap thrills and every kind of convenience; as a result, even the most basic acts of creativity and loveliness seem novel and maybe even daunting.
In truth, this book might feel daunting, but I believe that is because we are accustomed to being told, “it’s okay, just go with the flow.” Those words may feel comforting, but they actually leave us empty. Thankfully, Miss Kalinowska is not writing a book of mindless platitudes. She is truly setting out to cultivate and restore beauty in the everyday, and thus she reminds us that we must pick up the “cross of beauty”; and in doing so, we will also discover true joy.
Clothed with Beauty reminds us of the wonder that is so missing in a world drenched in the ugly and banal. In each chapter, Miss Kalinowska pulls her reader out of the man-made wonderless realm of plastic and disorder, where “God’s finger prints” are impossible to detect, to the real world God made. She answers difficult questions like “What exactly is beautiful dress and is it even possible today?” with true artistic insight and philosophical principles. If we understand that dress is both a language and an art, we must also admit that there are rules, parameters, and harmony governing it.
She charitably dismantles the fallacies and conflicting narratives many modern authors take regarding Catholic dress. Through this, readers are left with the right tools to actually begin a journey toward beauty.
Throughout this brilliant and delightful book, Miss Kalinowska introduces her reader to artistic principles, the difference between beauty and elegance, the importance of natural fibers, and the need to be vigilant. A part that truly struck me is when she emphasized that “clothing has the power to shape the mind.” This is something I have acutely experienced in my own life and my own struggles with modesty.
She goes on to state that so much of our clothing denies the value and beauty of the wearer by saying, “You aren’t worth anything better.” How we dress, and how we dress our children, is not just an act of utility. It is language that hopefully will remind us that one day, if we are faithful to our mission, we will be clothed in the infinite beauty of God.
