I am certainly not pre Vatican II. We converted in 1994. But I do cover my head in prayer and mass, and adoration etc. God gave me the “nudge”. And then He gave me provenence for why it should be done. So I do it.
Please, please, please do not be offended by this. That is not why I am giving this info. I do not want to cause anyone any problems.
Ver. 6. “But if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.”
Thus, in the beginning he simply requires that the head be not bare: but as he proceeds he intimates both the continuance of the rule, saying, “for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven,” and the keeping of it with all care and diligence. For he said not merely covered, but “covered over,” meaning that she be carefully wrapped up on every side. And by reducing it to an absurdity, he appeals to their shame, saying by way of severe reprimand, “but if she be not covered, let her also be shorn.” As if he had said, “If thou cast away the covering appointed by the law of God, cast away likewise that appointed by nature.”
But if any say, “Nay, how can this be a shame to the woman, if 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 laws ordained of God, but to go beyond, is not an addition but a diminuation. For as he that desireth other men’s goods and seizeth what is not his own, hath not gained any thing 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 John Chrysostom. HOMILY XXVI. ON THE VEILING OF WOMEN
St. Augustine did not make any exceptions, any more than St. John Chrysostom did; he prescribed the wearing of the veil for all women at all times, whether married or not. The Latin-reading reader will notice the word which the Saint uses for “uncover”: nudare, a pejorative word meaning “to strip” or “to make naked,” or even “to spoil” or “to plunder.” St. Augustine clearly takes a very strong view of women “stripping” their heads and “making naked” their hair, and consequently he must take a strong view about the importance of maintaining the sign of authority over woman’s head, the veil, the covering which conceals the woman’s nakedness.
- 4 Conclusion
It seems clear that the Fathers felt that removing a woman’s veil was, in a large sense, making her “naked,” stripping her of something that is vital for her real well-being. For it is, indeed, woman’s own well-being with which the Fathers were concerned; it is for her good that she ought to wear the veil, just as it is for man’s good that he not wear it. It is not a matter of enslavement and liberation, but of proper and improper place.
traditioninaction.org/religious/d008rpVeil_4_Goodman.htm
