A Renaissance of Chapel Veils

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimG
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Fauken said:
There’s also consecrated virgins, who are given an actual veil at their consecration. Their veil representing their spousal relationship with Christ, like a nun. In a sense, they are “called” to veil.
Click to expand...
We have a consecrated virgin in our parish, and she definitely doesn’t wear one.
 
roseyelephant said:
church have a stance on this? What about the early church fathers? Scripture?
Click to expand...
The Church, the Fathers, and Scripture, as well as history, are all unanimous.

Veiling is a pious and recommended practice.
 
Last edited:
Do we have any old writings about it? Everytime the question of veiling pops up, we always see modern reasons that are mostly the opinions of Catholics rather than actual church teaching?
 
I am tired of this black and white arguments. I attend often mass at my russian orthodox parish, every woman except maybe one or two teenage girls wear a headcovering. Some wear hats, some a shawl or veil. No one makes a fashion show there out of it, and there is really a difference between chosing a heavily embroidered silk cloth or a simple scarf. I wear “nicer” ones at happy fetivals like christmas or easter sunday. This is far from saying “look how beautiful my headcovering is”, in the winter time, we leave simply our wool hats on. There may be women -mostly converts in their, say, “I do it 150% right” phase who seem to make it out of pride, but not in general. (don´t get me wrong, nothing against converts!)
I would propaly feel uncomfortable in a parsh where I would be the only women wearing something on her head, but as a child, I was used to it as my french grandma told me to, and later, as an adult, I attended parishes with mixed ethnic background where many women traditionally wear some sort of headcovering.
 
Ask and ye shall receive.

St. John Chrysostom:

"The angels are present here . . . Open the eyes of faith and look upon this sight. For if the very air is filled with angels, how much more so the Church! . . . Hear the Apostle teaching this, when he bids the women to cover their heads with a veil because of the presence of the angels.”

"But if any say, ‘Nay, how can this be a shame to the woman, if [by removing the veil] she mount up to the glory of the man? ’ we might make this answer: ‘She doth not mount up, but rather falls from her own proper honor.’ Since not to abide within our own limits and the law ordained of God, but to go beyond, is not an addition but a diminution. For as he that desireth other men’s goods and seizeth what is not his own, hath not gained anything more, but is diminished, having lost even that which he had (which kind of thing also happened in Paradise); so likewise the woman acquireth not the man’s dignity, but loseth even the woman’s decency which she had. And not from hence only is her shame and reproach, but also on account of her covetousness.”

St. Augustine:

"Those who are of the world think how they are to please their wives, if they are men, or their husbands, if they are women, [and choose their dress accordingly]; except that women, whom the Apostle orders to cover [velare, to veil] their heads, ought not to uncover their hair, even if they are married.”

St. Ambrose:

“Is anything so conducive to lust as with unseemly movements thus to expose in nakedness those parts of the body which either nature has hidden or custom has veiled, to sport with the looks, to turn the neck, to loosen the hair? Fitly was the next step an offense against God. For what modesty can there be? ”

St. Thomas Aquinas

"In this case [of the veil], however, they may be excused [for not wearing it] from sin, if they do not do it from a certain vanity, but because of some contrary custom. Such a custom, however, is not praiseworthy.”
 
I sometimes think that my problem is with the phrasing that one is somehow called. I don’t believe that God calls some people to wear a veil and not others. I think the word called is not an actual calling like the one that people have when discerning the priesthood, or becoming a nun. Because of that, as mentioned above, it seems more based on feeling, and emotion. If someone said I feel like wearing a veil to mass, it probably wouldn’t bother me as much.

And also, there is the whole to veil part of it. If anything, someone would be called to wear a veil.
As I mentioned elsewhere, it sounds like people where I live that leave words out: “The house needs painted.”
 
Last edited:
"Nancy, I am calling you to wear a veil. Janet? No, I am not calling you. "

I don’t buy it.
 
Yeah. Something feels off with that. I’m guessing it’s just them feeling very drawn to the practice, which is fine of course.
 
I think that is it exactly for me. Feeling like doing something and being called by God to do it are two different things. One is something you choose to do, one is something that God asks of you.
 
How can we rule out that God is moving women in a way to revive a pious custom in his Church?
 
I wouldn’t rule it out. But I would ask why would God do that then. I still don’t know what’s the purpose of veiling (modesty? Submission? Cultural practices?) and I think the purpose constantly changes.
 
Irishmom2 said:
I sometimes think that my problem is with the phrasing that one is somehow called. I don’t believe that God calls some people to wear a veil and not others. I think the word called is not an actual calling like the one that people have when discerning the priesthood, or becoming a nun. Because of that, as mentioned above, it seems more based on feeling, and emotion. If someone said I feel like wearing a veil to mass, it probably wouldn’t bother me as much.
Click to expand...
I think that’s part of my problem with it, too, @Irishmom2. It’s the religious who have been “called to veil.” If people would say they want to “cover their head,” I think I’d feel better about it because I have no problem with women who wear hats to church. Sometimes these women who say they want “to veil” mean they simply want to wear a hat.

I also don’t think any woman is “called to veil” unless she’s being called to the religious life or is going to live as a consecrated virgin. Covering one’s head, for most, isn’t a “calling,” but a conscious choice. I also think the word, “veiling,” is partly why I see it as overly pious because wearing a hat or scarf to church isn’t overly pious. Veiling, though, is something that belongs to those who have taken religious vows and live in community.

Just my opinion, of course.
 
Spyridon said:
How can we rule out that God is moving women in a way to revive a pious custom in his Church?
Click to expand...
Because Christ didn’t like people who are overly pious, and, as @Irishmom2 has pointed out, God would not call one and call the other to forego. The call to love and show reverence for Christ and his church is universal; covering one’s head is an emotional and personal choice on the part of the person who does it.
 
This has been a minorly contentious issue between my wife and I.

I’ve put the screws to her more than once about how I feel veiling is superior to not veiling - I had this really instilled in me the 9 months I was a Russian Orthodox catechumen. But she absolutely refuses to wear any sort of veil or scarf, although sometimes she’ll wear a hat or a hood (good enough for me).

If I was a woman, I would veil in the Eastern style. I’d go to Mass looking like this:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

That is how a woman of God ought to look when worshipping the Most High.

Instead, we see the Church packed with women looking like this:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Pictures speak for themselves.

One exudes piety, holiness, humility, chastity.

The other exudes irreverence, worldliness, pride, and lust.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top