Crazy Tune: On Veil

First off, this will be a multimedia posting. A little bit of a "change we can believe in".

Let's start with advent conspiracy:

Next, we have:

What is it? At the first glance, this looks like a Muslim fashion show.

Apparently not so, for some of the spectator wore black robes with a cross hanging on their neck (pictured).

Yep, it was an orthodox church fashion show in Russia. Here are the rest of the pictures and the website of their main page.

As this blogger puts it: "It almost looks (shock!) islamic, but to that I just have to say: WE were doing it first!"

With that I want to go back to the idea of a veil in Christianity. Why we do it and what's the reason behind it.

It was first mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:6

"But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head—it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil.
"For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels....If any one is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God." (1 Corinthians 11:3-10,16)

It is not until 1970 that the Catholic church takes out the habit of women wearing a head covering in the church. That was about 1940 years of tradition (if I calculated that Jesus died around 30 AD). This is a snippet arguments amongst catholic whether we should have head coverings or not in the church.

I am not wise enough to say much about head coverings. But veil (head coverings) is a beautiful thing in my opinion. When I saw people wear head coverings back home in Indonesia, I put more respect to those women, for it gives a sign of contradiction in the world that glorify immodesty.

And I think the articles from Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand that I posted in my last blog post puts it nicely:

If you read the Gospel, women play a very secondary role. Even the Holy Virgin is mentioned very rarely and speaks very little. The very moment that you put on supernatural lenses you are going to come to the strange conclusion that it is a privilege to be a woman. It is a privilege precisely because, to be in the background, from a secularistic point of view, to be humiliated, which often happens, is a tremendous supernatural advantage.

This is something St. Teresa understood so profoundly. It is not true that to be humiliated is to be inferior. It is not true that to be subject to one’s husband is to be inferior. If you read the Gospel of St. Luke when Christ was found in the Temple in Jerusalem and then went back to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, it is said “He was subject to them”.

Moreover,

The woman has a great advantage over the human male, she is receptive and religiously speaking, receptivity is a crucial virtue. The Holy Virgin taught us that when she said at the Annunciation “Be it done to me according to Thy Word”. She wasn’t doing, she said “be it done”. In other words she was receptive and her receptivity enabled the Holy Spirit to fecundate her and at that very moment the Son of God was made incarnate in her womb.

St. Teresa of Avila and St. Peter Alcantara say that many more women than men receive extraordinary mystical graces, and if you study the history of mysticism you will be amazed how many more women than men were mystics. Why? They are more receptive and you see, towards God we are all females. A saint becomes a male saint because he learned to be receptive to God’s grace. “Give it to me, O Lord, I cannot do it by myself”.

And the best part,

And this is why the female body should be veiled because everything which is sacred calls for veiling. When Moses came down form Mount Sinai, he veiled his face. Why did he veil his face? Because he had spoken to God and at that very moment there was a sacredness that called for veiling.

Now the stupid feminists after Vatican II suddenly “discovered” that when women go to Church veiled, it is a sign of their inferiority. The man takes off his hat and the woman puts on a veil. My goodness, how they have lost the sense of the supernatural. Veiling indicates sacredness and it is a special privilege of the woman that she enters church veiled.

You see the Church recognises things so profoundly that in some way you can say she has always recognised the special dignity granted to women. You cannot be a Christian and not recognise the privilege that it is to be a woman, because the most perfect of all creatures, the only creature born without original sin, is a woman and therefore once again you understand the extraordinary privilege of being one and having this image of the Holy Virgin, who was both Virgin and Mother and the two go beautifully together.

Christian put so much respects on female and femininity, that even the early Christians when they draw their "orantes" (people praying) sketch, it would symbolizes a feminine figure. As can be seen down below: