![\"Mantilla\"](\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Mantilla.jpg\")
\u00a0A friend of mine recently asked me about the veils worn by female parishioners at a church she had visited. I didn’t have much to say since, being a boy, I hadn’t given too much thought to the subject of frilly lace…<\/p>\n\u00a0A friend of mine recently asked me about the veils worn by female parishioners at a church she had visited. I didn’t have much to say since, being a boy, I hadn’t given too much thought to the subject of frilly lace…<\/p>\n
My first real exposure to the chapel veil and mantilla was in Washington DC, when I went to my first\u00a0Extraordinary Form Mass<\/a>\u00a0at the Basilica.\u00a0If you have attended a\u00a0Latin Mass you may well have noticed them too.<\/p>\n However, it’s not like the use of veils is restricted only to “traditional” Catholics. I’ve occasionally seen veils at\u00a0English\u00a0Novus Ordo<\/em>\u00a0liturgies. Additionally, the reason that there aren’t many good photos of me at my\u00a0First Holy Communion is because, in most pictures, my face is partially or wholly obscured by a veil belonging to one of the girls in my class!\u00a0But the most common prevailing use of the veil is, of course, by a bride at her wedding.<\/p>\n I tried to do a little bit of research on the history and theology of veils but I unfortunately didn’t find a lot of good source material, so if you know a lot about veils or have any good resources you’d like to share, please respond in the Comment Box below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Up to comparatively recently in the West, it was standard for all females to cover their heads when attending Mass. This was typically done with either a hat or a veil.<\/p>\n I have heard it said that some people attach particular meaning to the colours of the veils, often indicating the lady’s marital status. However, most ladies I know just match the veil to the colour of the outfit \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Although the practice of wearing veils has a long tradition within the Roman Church, as far as I can tell, the mandated use of head coverings only technically entered Canon Law in 1917. In 1983, Canon Law was updated, but with no mention of head coverings. The practice largely fell into disuse.<\/p>\n In the Eastern Church, however, the use of head coverings seems to have been less consistent, although still well-attested. At my own Byzantine Parish I would say that the majority don’t cover their heads. However, those who do, are typically from the younger end of the parish.<\/p>\n Head coverings find their roots in Judaism. At the time of Christ, women would generally wear veils, especially when in public situations such as at the synagogue. In the New Testament, St. Paul specifically\u00a0mentions head coverings in his letter to the Church at Corinth:<\/p>\n …any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled<\/span> dishonors her head…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n – 1 Corinthians 11:4<\/span><\/p>\n You can read the full text here<\/a>. It is admittedly one of the trickiest passages in the Bible to understand. Paul mentions several things in passing without elaboration which he assumes his readers will understand without further explanation.\u00a0Since this is really the only New Testament passage which addresses this subject, I’d like to very briefly mention some of the reasons Paul gives for this teaching:<\/p>\n 1. Marital Headship<\/strong> …the head of Christ is God…the head of every man is Christ…the head of a woman is her husband…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n If words like “headship”<\/em><\/span> and “submission”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0are the kind of words which make you start to twitch, please remember the demands Paul placed upon husbands<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Angelic Imitation<\/strong> Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered [veiled] his face<\/span>, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.\u00a0And one called to another and said: <\/em><\/span>\u201cHoly, holy, holy is the\u00a0Lord\u00a0of hosts;\u00a0<\/em><\/span>the whole earth is full of his glory.\u201d<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n – Isaiah 6:2-3<\/span><\/p>\n It therefore appears that Paul is asking the women somehow to imitate the angels.\u00a0This is another verse which we would love St. Paul to explain further since it begs many, many questions!<\/p>\n 3. Modesty<\/strong> … For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair<\/span>; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn<\/span> or shaven<\/span>, let her wear a veil…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n At this point in history and culture it was common for prostitutes to wear their hair short and for women caught in adultery to be punished by having their heads shaved.<\/p>\n 4. Nature\/Culture<\/strong> …<\/span>but if a woman has long hair, it is her pride<\/span>? For her hair is given to her for a covering<\/span>…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n St. Paul is pointing to the fact that women naturally grow their hair long and that it is a source of glory.<\/p>\n 5. Tradition<\/strong> … If any one is disposed to be contentious,\u00a0we recognize no other practice [custom]<\/span>, nor do the churches of God<\/span>…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n From this, it is at least clear that veiling was the norm in the First Century.<\/p>\n As I said above, in the tradition of the Catholic Church it has been extremely common for women to veil their heads at the Eucharistic liturgy. However, this is regarded as Catholic\u00a0“discipline”<\/em><\/span> rather than “dogma”<\/em><\/span>. It therefore is subject to change, and has indeed changed\u00a0over time in different cultures. As of today there is no requirement to do so, although in some parishes it is strongly encouraged.<\/p>\n As I said at the beginning of this post, I hadn’t really given the subject of head coverings much thought until recently. \u00a0In this post I just wanted to get down a few thoughts and look at one of the trickiest and most cryptic passages of Scripture which relates to this subject.<\/p>\n I’d like to end by sharing some words from one of my favourite preachers,\u00a0Msgr Pope<\/a>. It’s a little long, but well worth the read…<\/p>\n “For both men and women, humility before God is the real point of these customs. In the ancient world as now, women gloried in their hair and often gave great attention to it. St. Paul above, \u00a0speaks of a woman\u2019s hair as her glory. As a man I am not unappreciative of this glory. Women do wonderful things with their hair. As such, their hair\u00a0is\u00a0part of their glory and, as St. Paul says it seems to suggest above \u00a0it is appropriate to cover our glory before the presence of God.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n “As for men, in the ancient world and to some lesser extent now, hats often signified rank and membership. As such, men displayed their rank and membership in organizations\u00a0with pride in the hats they wore. Hence Paul tells them to uncover their heads and leave their worldly glories aside when coming before God. Today men still do \u00a0some of this (esp. in the military) but men wear less hats in general. But when they do they are often boasting of allegiances to sports teams and the like. Likewise, some men who belong to fraternal organizations such as the various Catholic Knights groups\u00a0often display ranks on their hats. We clergy do this as well to some extent with different color poms on birettas etc. Paul encourages all this to be left aside in Church. As for the clergy, though we may enter the Church with these ranked hats and insignia, we are to cast them aside when we go to the altar. Knights organizations are also directed to set down their hats when the Eucharistic prayer begins.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n “I do not advance this argument from humility to say women ought to cover their heads, for I would not require what the Church does not. But I offer the line of reasoning as a way to understand veiling in a way that is respectful of the modern setting, IF \u00a0a woman chooses to use the veil. Since this is just a matter of custom then we are not necessarily required to understand its meaning in exactly the way St. Paul describes. Submission is biblical but it need not be the reason for the veil. Humility before God seems a more workable understanding especially since it can be seen to apply to both men and women in the way I have tried to set it forth”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n And, for what it’s worth, I think veils look pretty \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n The article A few thoughts on head coverings<\/a> first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0A friend of mine recently asked me about the veils worn by female parishioners at a church she had visited. I didn’t have much to say since, being a boy, I hadn’t given too much thought to the subject of frilly lace… My first real exposure to the chapel veil and mantilla was in Washington DC, when I went to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2969,2285,338,2284,2283],"class_list":["post-20789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-head-covering","tag-latin-mass","tag-mantilla","tag-veil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20789"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60273,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20789\/revisions\/60273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A little history<\/h2>\n
A little Biblical theology<\/h2>\n
\nThe Apostle appears to link head covering to the “headship” of a husband in marriage:<\/p>\n
\nSt. Paul says, rather cryptically, that women should cover their heads “because of the Angels”<\/em><\/span>. I’ve heard several different explanations as to what Paul means here. However, particularly since he is discussing head coverings in the context of the liturgy, I would suggest that he’s referring to a passage from the Prophet Isaiah:<\/p>\n
\nAn argument is also put forth, linking head coverings to modesty:<\/p>\n
\nTowards the end of the passage St. Paul makes the following argument:<\/p>\n
\nFinally, St. Paul argues based on tradition:<\/p>\nClosing Thoughts<\/h2>\n