The resurgence of headcovering at Mass - why?

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lizaanne said:
You have to admit - there weren’t nearly as many headcovering threads three years ago. More and more you see Catholic online sellers adding chapel veils to their stock selection. What I used to be able to find on eBay for $6, now sells for $30, and that’s if you can even bid on it fast enough before it sells. Women are starting home businesses making veils, and can’t keep some styles in stock.

Women (of all ages) seem to be coming to the personal devotion of covering their head at Mass and Adoration by the droves. But why? What has changed?

This is NOT a debate thread. If you want to debate the legitimacy, purpose, or what the Church has to say about headcovering, start another thread. Please. This is only to discuss why people think this is suddenly coming back into practice after so many years.

I would be inclined to say that is is due to the Moto Propio, but how many of your basic “Catholics in the pews” even know about it? If you attend a really liberal parish, I doubt your priest ever even mentioned it. And yet I see women here on CAF all the time who attend liberal parishes, wishing to start covering their heads, without a Latin Mass in sight for them.

So - what do you think?

~Liza
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My personal opinion, is that it has to do with the “age of information.” Any truth seeker out there, can look it up online. I came back to the Church because I had honest questions and the Church had the answers. As with head coverings, that is a topic that even came up in my evangelical, bible-only churches. St. Paul says do it, so why don’t we do it today? What changed? We can look up the 1983 Code of Canon Law, read Fisheaters’ articles online, and come to the same conclusion, it’s not necessary, but it is a good private devotion. I like to observe it as a private devotion during Lent. I don’t feel a need to stick out in my parish as holier than thou.
 
It’s the norm at the EF for women to veil. I haven’t noticed an increase in the last three years, personally.
 
lizaanne said:
You have to admit - there weren’t nearly as many headcovering threads three years ago. More and more you see Catholic online sellers adding chapel veils to their stock selection. What I used to be able to find on eBay for $6, now sells for $30, and that’s if you can even bid on it fast enough before it sells. Women are starting home businesses making veils, and can’t keep some styles in stock.

Women (of all ages) seem to be coming to the personal devotion of covering their head at Mass and Adoration by the droves. But why? What has changed?

This is NOT a debate thread. If you want to debate the legitimacy, purpose, or what the Church has to say about headcovering, start another thread. Please. This is only to discuss why people think this is suddenly coming back into practice after so many years.

I would be inclined to say that is is due to the Moto Propio, but how many of your basic “Catholics in the pews” even know about it? If you attend a really liberal parish, I doubt your priest ever even mentioned it. And yet I see women here on CAF all the time who attend liberal parishes, wishing to start covering their heads, without a Latin Mass in sight for them.

So - what do you think?

~Liza
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Glory be to God in teh Highest. I think that is a sign of repentance of the people of God.
 
nickybr38 said:
If I’m being perfectly honest… as a new convert who covers my head (not veiling but hatting), I do so because I do crave stability, I long for tradition (even if it is a physical tradition) and I just want some kind of reverence that can be seen. Not a reverence I have to ‘feel’ or ‘hear only in my heart’. I came from churches where people would interrupt scripture readings if the reader wasn’t doing it correctly, churches where people would stand and dance in the aisles, churches where the service was all about emotional highs and nothing else. Now here I am and I just want some calm, quiet and tradition and to me the head covering is just such a huge sign of that tradition my heart desires so much.

As to why… well, I think it’s because my family unit was so broken and distorted. We had no traditions in our family, we had no traditions in our church, we had no stability (I come from a broken family) at all… it’s something I’ve always longed for.

Every week I go to Mass and I am completely bowled over by what God has given me. A year ago I wouldn’t have even considered stepping foot into a Catholic Church and then the Holy Spirit said: GO. So I did… and now I have everything I ever longed for and even more.

I know these aren’t the most solid reasons for head covering but they’re my reasons. 🤷 And I kind of wonder if others don’t feel the same way.

Currently I’ve been trying to study and research and learn more about head covering. Why did it last nearly 2000 years and then get tossed aside? What does it really mean? Is it cultural? If so, shouldn’t it still be in place? Isn’t the Catholic culture a culture separate from mainstream culture? So many questions… and I just don’t have the time to wrap my head around it all.
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Amem. I do. although I am the only one who does it, but I do as an example and who knows others may follow.
 
Coming from a new convert, I personally find it strange to cover one’s head. The only coverings I regularly see are nun’s veils otherwise among the laypeople, I have only seen it a couple of times in the past two years since I began to explore and now joined our church. At least up here, I haven’t noticed a resurgence but again it could be a more local concentrated renewal.

That is just my opinion. Please don’t get angry.
 
lizaanne said:
You have to admit - there weren’t nearly as many headcovering threads three years ago. More and more you see Catholic online sellers adding chapel veils to their stock selection. What I used to be able to find on eBay for $6, now sells for $30, and that’s if you can even bid on it fast enough before it sells. Women are starting home businesses making veils, and can’t keep some styles in stock.

Women (of all ages) seem to be coming to the personal devotion of covering their head at Mass and Adoration by the droves. But why? What has changed?

This is NOT a debate thread. If you want to debate the legitimacy, purpose, or what the Church has to say about headcovering, start another thread. Please. This is only to discuss why people think this is suddenly coming back into practice after so many years.

I would be inclined to say that is is due to the Moto Propio, but how many of your basic “Catholics in the pews” even know about it? If you attend a really liberal parish, I doubt your priest ever even mentioned it. And yet I see women here on CAF all the time who attend liberal parishes, wishing to start covering their heads, without a Latin Mass in sight for them.

So - what do you think?

~Liza
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I’m young-ish, I attend the OF, my parish is NOT liberal, and we do not have the EF at our parish. We do have the EF available in our diocese. I have never attended the EF.

I have been covering my head since before the Motu Proprio, so I know that has nothing to do with it for, personally.

I saw women wearing headcovering, and I was curious. I came to CAF and read about it. I did not feel called to it, at first. A year or two later, I did feel called to the practice.

Something I find very strange is that I know of women who cover their heads at the EF but not at the OF. This is shocking to me, given my own reasons for covering. I cover my head out of respect for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and for the house of God. Can anyone explain why those reasons should be different at the EF vs the OF? Very confusing for me. :confused:
 
MissRose73 said:
I think those females who choose to use head covering is one of respect and reverence in church especially at Mass. ** I wish more women would cover at OF Masses in my opinion but it will be a long time before I see more doing so.** I do like the opportunities I get to go to the EF Masses because I do not feel out of place because most of the women cover

I cover because I am showing reverence and respect to God & the Blessed Sacrament in His house. I respect those who choose not to cover, and I hope more will notice those who do & start again to cover (or if they haven’t covered in their lives to start).

At least I am glad my sister’s 2 pre-teen children understand why their aunt chooses to cover her head. Now if my mother would truly understand that I do so because it is my choice.
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It can happen! 👍 There were three of us at my large OF parish when I started covering my head. 4 years later, that number is up to at least 15 ladies. We wear veils, hats, scarves, and snoods. 15 may seem like a small number, but it’s almost 300% more ladies than we started with!

It takes a lot of time for some people to get used to new things, and then to gather the courage to change. This has been four years of a small group of women being visible in headcoverings week after week after week, and smiling at everyone we see.
 
lizaanne said:
You have to admit - there weren’t nearly as many headcovering threads three years ago. More and more you see Catholic online sellers adding chapel veils to their stock selection. What I used to be able to find on eBay for $6, now sells for $30, and that’s if you can even bid on it fast enough before it sells. Women are starting home businesses making veils, and can’t keep some styles in stock.

Women (of all ages) seem to be coming to the personal devotion of covering their head at Mass and Adoration by the droves. But why? What has changed?

This is NOT a debate thread. If you want to debate the legitimacy, purpose, or what the Church has to say about headcovering, start another thread. Please. This is only to discuss why people think this is suddenly coming back into practice after so many years.

I would be inclined to say that is is due to the Moto Propio, but how many of your basic “Catholics in the pews” even know about it? If you attend a really liberal parish, I doubt your priest ever even mentioned it. And yet I see women here on CAF all the time who attend liberal parishes, wishing to start covering their heads, without a Latin Mass in sight for them.

So - what do you think?

~Liza
Click to expand...
I wish I could ask someone to discuss this, but the only woman I have seen cover her head in the churches around here is the wife of the Byzantine priest down the road! No other woman in that parish covers her head (I have been to DL there, and the priest has also told me this). In the summer I visit different parishes, and I have yet to see a headcovering around here except in winter, but that is for warmth. I am sure some do, but there don’t seem to be very many. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Of course, I haven’t been to every church around here. I thought the very traditional Dominican parish I attend sometimes would have a few women to cover their heads, but–nope, never saw one. And they are about as traditional as you can get without the EF.
 
Just so the pendulum doesn’t swing so far back the “other way” that ladies go back to confusing Kleenex-on-the-head as necessary to enter a church. Used to see a lot of that back in the day.
 
Being a boy, I was never really concerned with the idea of headcovering at Mass, but I think that it’s a good tradition that should be retained, and I think mantillas look pretty. Obviously many other women are thinking the same thing.
 
cecilia97 said:
.

Something I find very strange is that I know of women who cover their heads at the EF but not at the OF. This is shocking to me, given my own reasons for covering. I cover my head out of respect for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and for the house of God. Can anyone explain why those reasons should be different at the EF vs the OF? Very confusing for me. :confused:
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I think some don’t want to be a distraction. In other words, if no one is covering but that person, then all eyes are on them. I’m not saying I agree. I’m just sayin’.
 
I asked my wife why she wears a veil. This is what she said: “Why not? Things that are precious are veiled. For the vast majority of the Church’s history, women have covered their heads in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. I cover my glory so that HIS glory may take first place at Mass. It’s a beautiful tradition and I’m sorry I missed out on even knowing about it for my first several years of being Catholic. I feel more reverent when I am wearing a veil. It just feels very Catholic and very feminine to me to wear it, if that makes sense.”
 
Not one lady in our Parish at the 5:30pm Sat Mass or the ten or noon Mass covers there head in our parish.
 
I regularly attend the EF but I don’t cover my head.

I love the idea and it is great to see women follow this custom but I just can’t get into the habit myself. I think the main reason is that I have no problem entering a church without a headcovering. A number of our female parishoners would not do that and always have something handy in case they visit a church or don’t go in. I can’t imagine not entering a church because I didn’t have a mantilla/hat with me.

I think this is the problem for me: I would feel like I was wearing a costume if I was only wearing the headcovering at the EF mass, but not on other occasions. And I really I don’t want to develop that attitude of EF as an opportunity for fancy dress.

I’ve been thinking about this for ages now and don’t know what to do. Threads like these are very helpful.
 
TrueLight said:
I don’t consider mantillas fancy dress. In fact, they make my outfits less fashionable. 😛
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Really? For me the mantilla has a wow factor. I’ve worn it a few times and felt like a glamorous mafia widow 😃

Hats are obviously an option but the principle is the same.

Oh, the agony. I suspect is it a question of habit in the end. The key is to start, right?

Just out of curiosity if you don’t mind, when did you start wearing a headcovering? Was it an immediate decision when you started attending Mass?
 
Its hard for me to explain to my own mother why I choose to cover for Mass, and she is from the time where head coverings were mandatory for females so I don’t explain. I will continue to cover for my various reasons even if she chooses not to accept them. I would have no issue if it was enforced again. I do not think it is distracting to cover and ignore those who have an issue with it.
 
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