I’m new to the Catholic Church and at Mass (especially daily Mass) I’ve seen women of all ages wearing beautiful head coverings. I know that they are not mandated by the Church and that everyone seems to have their own opinion on them. A few I’ve spoken with on the topic seemed angry about them as if others choosing to wear the covering were making them look bad for choosing not to - that was the impression I got.
Personally I think they are a beautiful demonstration of respect, however I do not see women who choose not to wear them as being disrespectful or unfaithful to the Church (or I would have to include myself in that assessment!).
My focus for this thread isn’t really on the merits of wearing them or not wearing them but more the personal experiences with people who do or who have chosen not to for their own reasons. And of those that do elect to wear them I’m wondering how many make their own. I’m a yarn-addicted knitter but so far I have not been able to successfully make a head covering that I like enough to wear to daily Mass. I’ve considered trying to learn tatting to make a lace covering but I have no experience with that craft at all.
I’m feeling very called to this aspect of spirituality but I don’t know where to even begin. Pretty sure I’ve never seen them sold in any shops I’ve been to, and I never know who to trust when buying items online. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Dear Raedar,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
Throughout the history of the Church Catholic women have veiled themselves before entering a church or at any time that they are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament (e.g. during visitation of the sick). Indeed, it was written into the 1917 Code of Canon Law (canon 1262) that women must cover their heads “especially when they approach the holy table”. Thus one would be mistaken in assuming that it was just some bizzare practice that emanated from the Exclusive Brethren sect, although that Protestant group continues to strictly observe the custom (quite rightly) on biblical grounds, even unto this day.
Since the Sixties many Catholic women have, sadly, become very lax regarding head covering and some have positively repudiated the veil because of the pervasive influence of radical femenist ideology. When the 1983 Code of Canon Law was produced, veiling was not abrogated but simply not mentioned.
Christian veiling of women is not, contrary to popular belief, some matter of indifference, or a ‘second order issue’, but a serious issue which concerns two millennia of Church Tradition, extending back to Old Testament tradition and to the New Testament admonitions by St. Paul (see I Corinthians 11: 1-17). According to St. Paul in that passage, women veil themselves as a sign that God’s glory, not the woman’s, should be the focus of worship and also as a sign of their submission to authority. Moreover, it is an
outward sign of women acknowledging headship, both God and their husbands (or fathers, as the case may be), and also a sign of respect to the presence of the Holy Angels at the Divine Liturgy.
By veiling *themselves, women reflect the Divine invisible order and actually make it visible in the *
congregation of the faithful. This St. Paul presents clearly as an ordinance and one which is the habit of all the churches.
Of course, some modern Catholic women, influenced by so called Christian femenists, convince themselves and others that St. Paul was a man of his time and that therefore the ordinance is no longer applicable in the 21st century. In point of fact, they resort to the very arguments employed by homosexual apologists who never tire of pointing out that St. Paul’s vehement denunciations of homosexual aberrant acts were culturally conditioned. This godless liberal thinking does, however, raise an important point: if we reject the veiling of women on the grounds that it was all ‘culturally conditioned’, then why not disregard what he had to say respecting homosexual deviancy, as some do. Indeed, what other admonitions from Sacred Scripture can we choose to disregard on a whim by fallaciously reasoning that they are culturally bound and thus irrelevant?
If you read the Corinthian passage cited above regarding veiling, you will observe that St. Paul was
never intimidated about breaking unecessary taboos. Indeed, it was he who actually repeatedly underscored that circumcision and the* en**tire mosaic law* were not necessary - and this as he was addressing Hebrew Christians who had lately embraced Christ’s religion. Clearly, the holy tradition and custom of veiling is not a matter of St. Paul being influenced by his culture, but is a symbol that is as relevant as a priest’s cassock and a nun’s habit.
Some have impugned St. Paul’s character by daring to suggest that he was a ‘mysogonist’ with respect to this matter of veiling. On the contrary, he assires us that, while the women is made for the glory of the man, even as a man is made for the glory of God, “yet neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is *of *the man, so also is the man
by the woman: but all things of God”. Men need women and women need men. However, the sexes have different roles, each equal in dignity - and all for the glory of God ( and, needless to say, we are to treat each other equally in the order of charity). Essentially, the veil is a sign of our recognizing these differences in roles.
Trust that will be some food for thought.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
