Day Twelve: Barbecue, Holy Oils, and Big Books....Oh My!

It is the day after my tears have returned and we are sitting around my parents' kitchen table, eating barbecue, potato salad, baked beans, and other assorted slightly special summertime foods. It is July 4th and there are fireworks on TV as we eat. I did not want to do this today, but felt like it was too late to back out of it. I am still wasted from yesterday's session with Pendragon and still trying to find right side up in my emotions. I take a bite of my barbecue sandwich, but don't really enjoy it. Truthfully, I barely even taste it. Although it may not look like it from the outside, I am miles away inside and want to just eat and go, but we won't be able to get away that quickly. After our late lunch, we will have to wait a bit before dessert and then a bit after that before we can make our excuses and go. Gray and I have already discussed that he will say that we need to leave so we can get home before too late and he can get to bed at his regular time because he has work the next day. It is true, but it is also an excuse.

To Veil or Not to Veil?

Lost in Dreams by Friedrich von Amerling (1835)

Something I have been thinking about a lot in the last couple of years is whether or not to wear a veil during Mass or Adoration. Wearing a veil during worship of God goes back to antiquity and certainly there are a number of scriptures supporting this practice. Until the end of the Vatican II Council, it was expected that if you were a woman going to Mass, you wore a veil or a hat to cover your head. I don't know enough about canon law to understand why that changed or if it should have changed, but for whatever reason, after Vatican II, women began to stop wearing a veil or hat to Mass. Eventually, the practice became so widespread that it became the norm rather than the exception. As of today, the practice of veiling is beginning to see an increase in the number of women who do it. Many of them are younger women under the age of 40. I had never really thought about it for myself until a couple of years ago when some women I knew from an online forum had a discussion about it. I started doing some research on the topic and study of both Church history and scripture.