a reflection of our fallen nature, we are not angels. i too remember the tediousness of being called from play to attend church,the bleakness of the lenten season, and even the 'relief' of not having to search for a mantilla to go to Mass. but now, older, and a little wiser, i can see where the restrictions were necessary, to bring me to my knees, because God did not create me as an angel, fifties catholicism, is what brought me to the place i am today, and still far from being an angel.
It's interesting you would mention
mantilla.
The practice of women covering their heads may be construed as a trapping, or prudential, or usage, or circuмstantial -- that is, not essential, or arbitrary, and subject to change. But I don't think that's accurate.
The practice of women covering their hair (ALL of it, not just a tiny spot on top or down to the ears or to the shoulders, while the bulk of loose hair hangs out below) goes back to the very dawn of the Church, and was a most "religious" practice before that time, into the mists of antiquity. We can be pretty sure that the women emerging from Noah's Ark covered ALL their hair, but we might suppose that those who drowned in the Flood did not cover themselves in many cases. Nor did the women of Sodom and Gomorrah, for example (one might expect). That is, women flaunting their hair in the face of men in church is an aspect of cultural PERVERSION, not of societal fidelity to God's will.
Have you ever seen an image of Our Lady with her hair exposed? The only one I know of is Mahony Square Garden in Los Angeles (aka Taj Mahony, aka The Pink Palace).
It seems to me that mantilla use is a lot more important than many realize.
There is an Armenian Orthodox parish in town where a friend of mine invited me to attend some years ago, where I was shown something most educational. Their longstanding tradition is for women to cover their heads in church, and you can quickly see who the hold-outs are because they wrap their heads up a lot like Moslem women do, with ears, neck and hairline over their foreheads concealed and only their faces exposed.
Other more "Americanized" ladies use free-flowing mantillas, often somewhat diaphanous lace. Maybe we have forgotten, but only 100 years ago even in the Roman Church, see-through lace mantillas were considered indecent, and far too reminiscent of how a streetwalker dresses to attract attention. Those were days when the thoughts that roam about in the mind of man were recognized for the prowling lions they are, seeking whom they might devour.
But as of 15 years ago, there were Freemasons posted in this Armenian Orthodox church, as ushers. These men were absolutely known to be Freemasons, and my friend proved it to me, so it's not questionable. Don't be surprised if petwerp chimes in trying to contradict that. These ushers (Freemasons) would stand in the aisles passing out mantillas to the ladies in line to receive Communion, and other Freemason ushers dutifully stood in the aisles where the same ladies would later REMOVE the mantilla in PLAIN VIEW at the front of the pews (upstaging the altar!) after having received Communion, as they walked back to their place in the pews. One detail is missing. Can you imagine what it was? I'll explain it later.
The purpose of these ushers (Freemasons, every one of them) was to provide a display of women disrobing in front of everyone, and to also mock the silliness of women who still clung to the ancient custom of covering their heads, because the whole point is that only during the reception of the Sacrament is it of any use to cover one's head, and this is only because of a silly, old, dusty practice that nobody really understands anyway, and besides, protestants don't do this, so what's the big deal? They did not speak this way openly, but in private they would crack jokes outside of the liturgical setting -- jokes they likely were informed about by other Freemasons.
The missing detail is as follows. Years previously, the Freemasons stood at the entrance to the church and handed veils to women as they walked in the door. But they were few because most women at the time already had veils on as they came into the church. The same Freemasons would stand at the exits after Divine Liturgy, dutifully collecting the veils, perhaps getting their "service hours in." Then later, the Freemasons gradually abandoned the entrance doors at the beginning of the Liturgy and moved into the aisles, proffering veils to women there, as they would approach their pew, but after having already walked from the door entrance to the pew without head covering. This was a subtle promotion of the practice of not bothering to bring your own veil, or during the week of bothering to keep track of where you had put it. Then later, the Freemasons waited until the Sermon was about to begin before they passed out the veils, and did a second 'wave' of distribution during the Offertory, and while the collection was taking place. It was only years later that they eventually abandoned these early opportunities to distribute mantillas and waited until the "last moment" (just before Communion) to pass out the veils, while women were standing in line to receive. The last change was for the Freemasons to start collecting the veils from women who had just received Communion, as they walked back to their pews.
Still no missing detail, but perhaps you have thought of it by now: When a particular woman accepts a veil while she is standing in line for Communion, she can do one of two things -- she can put it on immediately, or she can wait for later. Many put it on right away, but others started delaying until they were say 20 steps from the altar, then 10 steps, then two or three steps. Eventually, there were women putting on a veil within SECONDS of receiving their Communion, and then immediately after reception of the Sacrament, they would whisk that veil off their heads before having so much as turned to walk away, and then the dutiful Freemason would be standing there to bow and scrape in their general direction, to impart a feeling of appreciation that they had done the "right thing."
The Freemasons were there,
quietly promoting the corruption of the custom of wearing mantillas in church, and
they did it by providing mantillas. The "missing detail" is that the Freemasons actively promoted the wearing of a veil for only the BARE MINIMUM of time, that is, while the woman is receiving Communion.
This whole approach IGNORES the fact that men are distracted by seeing women's hair exposed in church, and they are ESPECIALLY distracted by seeing women putting veils ON and TAKING THEM OFF. The latter, you may well imagine, is the cause of many mortal sins in the hearts of men who see a nonstop
parade of women "taking it off."
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Topic: ELEISON COMMENTS (347) 8th March 2014 A.D. (Read 7655 times)