"Because of the Angels..."

I have SO many thoughts I want to share and SO little time. So please bear with me as I try to bring out all of my thoughts! Especially on yesterday's Chrism Mass.

So I have been doing more and more research on headcovering and have been increasingly obedient to it. I have worn my snood to work every single day since Joe and I had a conversation regarding it. I have taken it off occasionally at home - but only when I am not likely to pray. I have tried wearing a kerchief to bed, but that usually comes off.

So I found some interesting information on the "Because of the Angels" statement in 1 Corinthians Chapter 11. Here is some info I found:
St. John Chrysostom (d. A.D. 407), in a sermon at the Feast of the Ascension, spoke both of angels and the veiling of women: "The angels are present here…Open the eyes of faith and look upon this sight. For if the very air is filled with angels, how much more so the Church! ...Hear the Apostle teaching this, when he bids the women to cover their heads with a veil because of the presence of the angels." Origen, another early Church Father, said, "There are angels in the midst of our assembly…we have here a twofold Church, one of men, the other of angels…And since there are angels present…women, when they pray, are ordered to have a covering upon their heads because of those angels. They assist the saints and rejoice in the Church." Instructions for catechumens in The Apostolic Tradition, probably written in the second century by St. Hippolytus of Rome, include this: "Moreover, let all the women have their heads veiled with a scarf…" And St. Cyril of Alexandria, commenting on I Corinthians, wrote: "The angels find it extremely hard to bear if this law [that women cover their heads] is disregarded."

Click Here For further information from that article.

Many women in the Catholic Church are coming back to wearing a veil. At yesterday's Chrism mass for the Diocese of Charleston, I was so happy to see so many women veiling.

For me, there is no longer a need to find out why to veil, but why veil "all the time. “My reason comes down to two things: 1. is Obedience. I am obedient to God and my headcovering is an outward full-time sign of that obedience, 2. is 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

If St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that "any woman who prays or prophesizes with her head unveiled disgraces her head" and in 1 Thessalonians that we should "pray without ceasing", why would we not wear a covering all the time? The first Christian women did veil all the time and for many centuries. There are carvings in the catacombs of Rome depicting these women. So why not veil fulltime? It is so much easier to have my covering on when I want to pray and not have to run and put one on. Yes, God answers prayers to women who are unveiled, but I think it gladdens His heart to see women who show their obedience to Him. Usually it comes down to pride and culturalization, but mostly to obedience when discerning on when to wear a covering full time. I have submitted myself to the Lord fully and completely and I rejoice in other women who do so.

A dear friend told me last week that I was “a head of her" on the path of veiling. She has been veiling for a year now and has been fighting the conviction to veil fulltime. But, dear Sisters in Christ, we are all on the path together and it is not a race. There are no winners or losers, only women who want to please their Lord and Savior. So "therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing."1 Thessalonians 5:11

Blessings!