Wearing the veil

God come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me. Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus I trust in You.
I learned something today that I did not know. I can honestly say that in my almost 51 years I did not know that the church did not ok the non-use of the veil. I learned it from someone who is very knowledgeable and he gave me a paper on it. I told him that I have struggled with this for years and no one has been able to answer my question on the matter. It would seem that the powers that be have said nothing because they don't think the matter is worth the fight it would cause. According to my source it would be better if we the women of the church just quietly began to wear the veil and educate others quietly.
I am all for wearing the veil after the reason for doing so was explained to me. In fact I have one that I found at a thrift store hanging up with the pillow cases and place mats and I have a small one called a veil cap that I am planning to wear for prayers in side and out side of the church when Mass is not being said. Why this renewed interest you might ask? I'll explain; yesterday while participating in the Mass I was over come with such a feeling of love that I began to weep. The type of weeping that comes on all of a sudden and streams of tears just run down your cheeks. This morning I was asked to help distribute the Holy Body of Christ and as I did that feeling came again but the tears did not instead I found my self trembling ever so slightly. Then I attended a meeting for the Militia Immaculata of which I am a member and during the reflection time many things came up and one was centered on the veil. Now I have been struggling as I said for years about this should I or shouldn't I and one of the wives at the diaconate always wore hers at Mass and she was a convert from Mormonism. The rest of us cradle catholics didn't think anything of it and we neither questioned her about it or commented on it.
I was told that the misunderstanding came during the time of Vatican II when a reporter asked a Bishop about women wearing the veil and he commented that the subject was not discussed so the reporter then printed his story stating that women no longer had to wear the veil and women began to abandon the custom. Actually my mother never believed she should get rid of her veil so she did continue to wear it. It would appear that when the radical feminist became vocal the the veil became a symbol of servitude in the negative sense and when word got around that it was no longer necessary they felt that they had one a small victory over the male dominated church. Another misconception as well. They felt that it made women second class in the church. In fact NOW was recommending that all head coverings should be burned publicly in protest. Oh what a tangled web we weave. One of my favorite songs is called "The Servant Song" well actually there are two The Servant Song and just "Servant Song" but the words are similar. The ones I am thinking of are -- Won't you let me be your servant let me be as Christ to you pray that I may have the Grace to let you be my servant too.--- Now don't you see the irony. We are called to be servants of Christ a high honor we are not worthy of and yet the symbol that shows our obedience and servitude is no longer a part of our lives. It isn't about being less than a man or about not being good enough. A women was chosen to be the New Arc of the Covenant because no man could do it. We each have our part to play and if we can't be servants to each other how can we ever hope to be servants to God? It's goes back to what I wrote last night it isn't about us it's about Christ and his Church of which we are the body it is about a LOVE so strong and so big that it can't be understood unless we were to die on a cross the way Jesus did. Yes I am going to wear my veil again and my prayer cap and I have six more prayer caps if anyone wants them? I put it to my group we should put caps and veils in the gathering space just like we do the rosaries so if someone should see us wearing a veil and would like to do so they will be there for their use. Thank goodness I am still open to learn and re-learn the beauty of my religion. So if you see me with my veil on and you ask me why I am wearing it I will tell you with all my heart because I love Jesus and I want to show him that I am not afraid to belong to him and when I say I love the Lord with my whole heart, my whole mind and my whole soul it will be more than words it will really mean something.

Your Will Be Done Not Mine

May the Lord Protect us from evil and may His face always shine upon us and may He deliver us from harm.

My thoughts for this evening are along the lines of the title of this entry. I had a discussion with my husband not too long ago about natural family planning you see it is my theory that the church allows it for two reasons; one it doesn't involve any unnatural means of preventing pregnancy and two it does promote a loving bond between husband and wife by teaching them that there are other ways to enjoy each other besides sexual intercourse. The problem that I have with it is that it still lets the couple be in control of how many children they will have and when they will have them. Now when a couple marries they are asked in the ceremony if they will accept any and all children that God sends them and they respond yes. Then they proceed to do it their way. They maintain control over their reproductive organs and God well he understands after all who wants to end up with 20 or so kids and at the wrong time in a career or whatever else they are into. See I think the situation is just like back in Moses' day when the people wanted to be able to divorce their wives and Moses's gave directions on how to do so but the problem was that when Jesus was on the scene at a much latter date he tells the people that Moses' should never have allowed divorce because as we find out there is a direct correlation between the relationship of man and women and God's relationship to us. Husband and wife are the living example of the oneness and unity that God wants to have with us. Now don't get me wrong I used NFP to let me know when I was most fertile then I let God do the rest and I have stories about the importance of letting God tell me when a child would be born and why it was important that the child come into the world. God and I had a special bond that way because I was listening to him. You see when I was a teenager I almost lost my ability to have children because of a Doctors neglect. God saved me from that fate because as I came to see latter the children I was to bring into the world had and have a purpose of his design. This hit home hard when we were visiting St.Padre Pio's center in P.A. last week. A lady at the information desk told me a story about how Pardre Pio could read into a persons heart, how God told him things about each person who went to confession to him. This story was about a women who went to confession and at the end she was asked if she had told Padre Pio everything and she said yes. He sent her away to think and pray about her answer and come again the next day. For three days this went on finally Padre Pio told her that she was holding back the fact that when she was younger she had an abortion. The woman was astounded and respond with a how did you know it was a secret that only I and my mother knew about. To which the Padre answered God knows. Then he told her the child was to become a Cardinal. Now you might think that he just made that up but there is another story when Padre Pio met a young priest from Poland and told him he would be Pope. So you decide if he made it up or not. The point is that God has a plan for each of us and if that plan includes marriage and children then we really should leave it in his hands to do what he will with us. I don't know how many times I have heard the argument about planning a family so that the mother isn't pregnant every year and ends up with 12 kids. God wanted five for me and that is what I had. One did not live long but he too had his purpose in his short little life. Because with God nothing and no one is wasted. A beautiful woman that I met recently told me another story about a little six year old girl who ended up in the child welfare system in her state. And since she happens to work in that system she experienced this story first hand. It goes something like this; It was part of her job to pick this child up from school and take her back to the center. On the way from school the little girl saw a church and said out loud as children are wont to do, That is where God lives. Then she asked the lady if she believed in God. The Lady said yes she did indeed believe in God but she knew she couldn't say to much more about it because there are rules about that. The little girl then went on to tell the Lady about her encounter with God. It happened before she was born, she said that God held her and told her, her life would be a hard one but not to lose hope because he would always be with her. Now the Lady knew that this little girls mother was a meths addict and the child had been pushed around the system for most of her short life and she didn't think that the child had much exposure to religion or church yet she could tell that the child was sincere and believed strongly in what she said. It sent chills down her spine. This Lady believes that each of us are sent on our journey with a message from our creator. Some of us don't need to hang on to it so eventually it is forgotten, others hold on to it longer because there is a need and some hold on to it forever because there is a bond of love that exist between them and the creator. We always think that God is all powerful when we need him to cure us or help us in some way but we don't think of trusting him with the little things the every day life experience things. We don't think he has time or can handle what we can control ourselves. This type of thinking limits God and we miss out on having a relationship with the one who Loves us best. The Priest today talked about our relationship with God in the Eucharist, he talked about how we dress when we come to Mass, how we act. People always say oh he doesn't care what you wear as long as you show up. Ok. Say that was true after you showed up a few more times don't you think you should adjust your attitude a bit and come more reverently? Who is the most important person in your life if not God and as Father pointed out if you were invited to the White House for dinner would you show up in your workout attire or would you go right from a soccer game? Or would you show up in soccer attire and leave early to get to a game?
This then brings me back to my original thought; If you truly accept God in your life and receive the Eucharist why then don't you trust him enought to guide you and lead you where he wants you to go?
Nothing in this life is perfect. And sometimes I struggle with the way my children act and the fact that they stopped going to church. But I found out that no matter where I go in my travels I am not alone. The number of people who are praying for their children to return to the church is astounding. The evil one has his hold on them and we have to flood heaven with our prayers so he won't win and trust that God will collect all his way ward children.
Well I've got to go for now so until next time.
May the Lord Bless us, protect us from evil and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen