Headcoverings

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Lorrie

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I know it’s no longer an obligation for women to wear a headcovering during Mass, but I tend to like the idea of covering our “crowning glory”. It seems so reverent to me as well.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel it should be an obligation still? If not, why? Do you wear one?

Thanks in advance! 🙂
 
…obligation? NO!.. do i miss the chapel veils of years ago, YES!

Peace 👍
 
I am a man. I always liked the Mantillas. Now it seems something is missing. The black Mantillas are the best, IMO.
 
I love the mantillas!
I think it reflects the beauty and devotion of catholic tradition. After my conversion I tried this devotional expression for a while - but I felt so distracted by wearing one at mass that I quit wearing it. Maybe if more women wore them I would feel different. I suppose perhaps 10 percent of the women in our church wear them.
I am also a major tomboy I guess and don’t dress up very girly girly ya know. I usually go straight to the woods or the barn after mass. :o

Hey - if you are in Europe or Vatican City, you just about HAVE to cover your head if you are a woman don’t you? As well as being appropriatly dressed?
(Don’t mean to hijack the thread)
 
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ridesawhitehors:
I love the mantillas!
I think it reflects the beauty and devotion of catholic tradition. After my conversion I tried this devotional expression for a while - but I felt so distracted by wearing one at mass that I quit wearing it. Maybe if more women wore them I would feel different. I suppose perhaps 10 percent of the women in our church wear them.
I am also a major tomboy I guess and don’t dress up very girly girly ya know. I usually go straight to the woods or the barn after mass. :o

Hey - if you are in Europe or Vatican City, you just about HAVE to cover your head if you are a woman don’t you? As well as being appropriatly dressed?
(Don’t mean to hijack the thread)
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I’m not sure about Europe in general, but in Vatican City I’ve heard it to be best. As for being appropriately dressed, well that should be a given no matter where you are. 😛
 
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Lorrie:
I’m not sure about Europe in general, but in Vatican City I’ve heard it to be best. As for being appropriately dressed, well that should be a given no matter where you are. 😛
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Well, what I meant by that is that my nephews girlfriend wasn’t allowed to go into a chapel in Rome because she was wearing pants and not a skirt. Otherwise - by American standards she was decent I guess. 🙂
 
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ridesawhitehors:
Well, what I meant by that is that my nephews girlfriend wasn’t allowed to go into a chapel in Rome because she was wearing pants and not a skirt. Otherwise - by American standards she was decent I guess. 🙂
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Ahhhhh, I understand! 🙂
 
It’s so abnormal to see them that I think they are a terrible distraction. I think they are anachronistic and I would never feel comfortable wearing one. I don’t mind if I see them, but I hate the people around me (or with me, unfortuantely) poitning them out and commenting on them.
 
It’s so abnormal to see them that I think they are a terrible distraction. I think they are tacky and anachronistic and I would never feel comfortable wearing one but far be it from me to tell other people how they should worship. Let people wear what they want. Church is not suppose to be a fashion parade. I don’t mind if I see them, but I hate the people around me (or with me, unfortunately) pointing them out and commenting on them.
 
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serendipity:
It’s so abnormal to see them that I think they are a terrible distraction. I think they are tacky and anachronistic and I would never feel comfortable wearing one but far be it from me to tell other people how they should worship. Let people wear what they want. Church is not suppose to be a fashion parade. I don’t mind if I see them, but I hate the people around me (or with me, unfortunately) pointing them out and commenting on them.
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Its a matter of perspective, serendipity. There is the perspective that you mentioned that it is viewed as a fashion parade… and the perspective that it is a pious expression of devotion that women fell genuinly obligated to uphold. They would feel naked without it, and don’t do it to be noticed. Perhaps 20 or so women in our parish wear them, and we are all accustomed to it, and it is a sign of respect.
I believe women like this deserve our respect.
 
There is a recent thread complete with Poll called VEILS

It is in the Liturgy & Sacraments Forum.
You can get it by going to:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=11437

There are over 100 posts on it.

Yes, veils are still part of the Roman Rite.

For reasons I do not know nor can imagine, it was closed on Jan 12, this month.
It was quite civil.
 
Yes, I wear my head covered just about all the time I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, at mass, adoration, or just praying in the sanctuary.

For me, it’s a personal thing. I know it’s not required, and I don’t ask any one else to do it. It’s sort of between me and God, me saying, God, I am not worthy to be here, but I love you and I am so very grateful for you for calling me into your church. As a mark of my unworthiness, of my humility, and my gratitude, I will wear my head covered to say thank you, in continuity with the old tradition.

Now, not to make people think this is me being ultra-traditional or anything to distract them, or that they may take as a put down of their faith walk, I NEVER wear chapel veils. That in particular seems to be linked in some people’s minds with a certain approach to faith, and I don’t mean it how they might interpret it. I wear scarves, shawls, berets, hats, bandanas. If I had a mantilla, I would wear it too…I love the old black lace ones. But my favorite is a black cashmere retangular shawl.

If I forget my scarf or shawl or hat, I still go in, because it’s a loving mark of my devotion to God, not a regulation that I feel required to keep by law, but I do feel only half dressed when I go in bare headed… Some of the ladies think it’s cool that I will wear hats to mass, and ask me about it if I forget. A couple of other ladies do it too.
 
I wear one now at every Mass unless I forget to bring it. I wear it if I happen to go to adoration or if I am in a church and the blessed sacrament is displayed in a monstrance.

I, like Knitting AC, feel naked without it now. It has nothing to do with anyone else but me and God, and I feel called to wear it.

Usually I wear my black lace mantilla because I think it doesn’t stand out as much. I’ll wear the white lace if I’m attending a special mass or a Latin Mass where the veil is more common.
 
So much of what we believe comes from what we infer from scripture. This is especially true as our world modernizes and we have to deal with issues like stem cell therapies, cloning etc.

The head covering issue however is not one we have to infer. Scripture CLEARLY tells us what to do.

1 Corinthians
Chapter 11

4 Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon his head.

5 But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved.

6 For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.

7 A man, on the other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
 
The Corinthian verses are certainly confimation.
BUT the Church was operational decades before that was written, and more decades before it circulated throughout the Church. Paul’s writing was most likely to bring the Greeks and other non-Jewish groups into conformity with tradition.
The practice is actually Jewish into far distant antiquity. The practice or tradition, was dominant in the Church from Day 1.

It was unbroken until VAT II, which I refer to as the Bull in the Tradition china shop.

In Catholic Tradition, the Scriptures are the truthful witness to many Church beliefs…The Church is the Judge who is free to inquire to the truthful witness. But the Church makes judgements where the witness is lacking testimony.
The Prot inverted that. They put the Scripture witness in the Judge’s chair, and made the Church a distrusted witness.

That’s why they seldom consult early Church history. Why should they when they have a deaf and mute Judge to address who can never talk back?

Even then there are only a few Baptist sects that still use the headcovering, and in those they insist on a veil or scarf.
So where the Bible is “out-of-date” they ignore their own Judge as well.
Makes sense to any girbble.

When one attrends a TLM, a headcovering is never a question. It is assumed to be part of the Rite.
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I do look at it like this also and defend it (besides scripture) to others in this way:

If we women go to Rome and are recieved by the Pope, both out of respect and custom we are to be veiled.

Why, then, would we willfully CHOOSE NOT to be veiled in the very presence of Christ?

I believe in the sacramental presence intellectually although I sometimes struggle with actual belief…but just the same, when the Holy Spirit gives me a smidgen of understanding of this great miracle I can’t stop the tears…and the only way I can reconcile belief here with my devotion is to be veiled.

I’m sorry this seems so incoherent, but it’s complicated and difficult to articulate. (I know those who have a better grasp and firmer belief in the presence of Christ understand what I mean by this).

Can anyone else better articulate this?
 
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JCPhoenix:
I do look at it like this also and defend it (besides scripture) to others in this way:

If we women go to Rome and are recieved by the Pope, both out of respect and custom we are to be veiled.

Why, then, would we willfully CHOOSE NOT to be veiled in the very presence of Christ?

I believe in the sacramental presence intellectually although I sometimes struggle with actual belief…but just the same, when the Holy Spirit gives me a smidgen of understanding of this great miracle I can’t stop the tears…and the only way I can reconcile belief here with my devotion is to be veiled.

I’m sorry this seems so incoherent, but it’s complicated and difficult to articulate. (I know those who have a better grasp and firmer belief in the presence of Christ understand what I mean by this).

Can anyone else better articulate this?
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I understand what you mean…
 
I don’t wear one…I used to many years ago when covering the head was mandatory…

There is a family that comes to our parish from time to time…the mother & daughters are all doned in there mantillas and some of the teenage daughters are dressed immodestly…so I ask you…why is the wearing a head covering more important when their bodies need the covering…:rolleyes: doesn’t add up?
 
I don’t but I have considered wearing head covering to mass as well as other changes towards a more traditional style of dress (at least when going to Mass). Those changes will never include high heels though 😉 . Last time I tried even relatively low heels I fell right on my backside on a recently mopped bathroom that had no warning that the floor inside was wet. No, I didn’t sue either 😃 .
 
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