According to Catholic author Mary Harper, the way we dress can be a way to express faith, human dignity, and personal identity.
Harper, author of “The Liturgical Style Guide,” in which she explores how faith should influence how we dress, noted that the Bible shows the symbolic importance of clothing: “It’s actually pretty amazing how, throughout both the Old Testament and the New … clothing is mentioned over 100 times… The majority of times, it’s meant to be a sign of God’s mercy and providence.”
This symbolism appears from the very beginning of the Bible, she said in a recent interview posted by the Archdiocese of Miami.
After original sin, Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves by sewing together fig leaves, which Harper called “flimsy.”
“What does God do? He literally slaughters an animal, the first sacrifice in Scripture. He covers them in leather garments because he wants them to have something that’s worthy, something that’s good, something that’s actually going to protect them and be lasting,” she explained.
According to Harper, this biblical image helps us understand human dignity. “God wants to cover us in robes of grace,” she said, also recalling the parable of the prodigal son, when the father “puts a robe on him and a ring on him, as a reminder of his goodness and his dignity and his identity.”
That’s why even something as ordinary as getting dressed every day can have a spiritual dimension. “Even through something that we do every day — getting dressed for the day — the Lord is speaking his providence over you. He desires to lavish you in grace. Even getting dressed in the morning is a way to remember putting on Christ, putting on your baptismal garment again, remembering who you are and who you’re called to be in Christ,” she pointed out.
Harper grew up Catholic in New Orleans. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in theology from Ave Maria University and is the founder of LiturgicalStyle.com, a project dedicated to reflecting on the theological significance of clothing based on the Bible, the stories of the saints, and the liturgical calendar.
She also writes for litanynyc.com a Catholic made-to-measure clothing company that seeks to apply the Church’s social teaching in its production process.
Clothing as a form of Christian witness
“Whether I intend it or not, my clothing is going to communicate something. You wear a school uniform, it tells you what school you go to; priests put on vestments that tell you about the liturgical season. Well, there’s great power in that,” she said.
From that perspective, she added, clothing can become a form of Christian witness. “I have the capacity to communicate the Gospel through my very garments, through intentionality, creativity, and beauty.”
The author also cautioned that the Christian view of modesty avoids two extremes: absolute individualism and fear of the body.
“One extreme is, I can wear whatever I want, I don’t care what anyone else thinks about it. At the same time, we don’t want to get to the point of, ‘I don’t know how to dress myself well, and I’m so scared of doing the wrong thing … [and] nothing can show because my body is bad,’” she explained.
“The Church has never said that,” Harper added, noting that Christian teaching on the goodness of the human body is developed in depth in St. John Paul II’s theology of the body.
More than strict rules, she argued, the key lies in discerning: “What is it that I want to communicate through what I’m wearing?”
Harper also explained that modesty involves considering the context and the activity.
“It is my responsibility to wear something that makes sense for the activity at hand, for the environment that I’m in, and that allows me to be fully present. That’s a service to everyone around me and to myself,” she stated, citing as an example the impracticality of wearing flip flops to hike in the Rocky Mountains.
Drawing inspiration from the saints
Harper also proposed a creative idea for living out one’s faith in everyday life: finding inspiration in the saints when choosing what to wear.
This does not mean, she clarified, that we imitate them literally. “I’m not telling you to go around wearing a Carmelite habit,” she joked.
Rather, she suggested small symbolic gestures: “If you have Western boots, you can say you’re wearing them in honor of St. Teresa of the Andes,” who loved horseback riding. Or “when you wear jeans, you can think of her, because she just loved to be this great adventurer and going into the mountains” and “I’m going to ask her to pray for me.”
Creativity and freedom in the Christian life
For Harper, the relationship between faith and clothing should not become a source of scrupulosity or pressure.
“Sometimes we can get so caught up saying, ‘If I’m a ‘real Catholic,’ then I’m going to dress in this particular way.’ I think it’s really easy to get kind of scrupulous when it comes to clothing,” she reflected.
Instead, she recommended bringing the matter to prayer and discernment with trusted individuals. “If you have any concern about, ‘Am I dressing in a way that is good?’, talk to someone who knows your heart,” she advised.
Finally, Harper encouraged living out Christian creativity in these everyday details as well: “The Holy Spirit is creative.”
“When you get dressed for the day, if you just say, ‘Come, Holy Spirit,’ he’s going to show up. It’s going to be awesome and joyful, and it’ll be more fun.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
