Why I Cover My Head

I practice head-covering.

It used to be that I just did it for church (with a veil), but I now do it nearly daily (with a bandanna), except on some rare occasions when I feel led to not cover my head.

Otherwise, I do it all the time.

I wrote about it early on in my journey, in the blog post entitled: 

A Long-Lost Tradition That I Practice - Wearing a Veil

Before I started head-covering though, I asked my husband's permission if I could wear a veil to Mass. He found nothing wrong with it, because in the past, even his own mother also wore a veil to church, as with so many others in our Catholic Christian country. Nowadays though, in church, I find myself alone (or with one or two usually very old and wheelchair-bound women) practicing this beautiful and long-lost tradition of veil-wearing.

I went a step or two further by wearing head scarves/bandannas too, outside of church. 

Why do I do this? For two BIG reasons...

- To remind myself to be humble before God and to worship Him with awe and reverence.

- To remind myself of my God-ordained role in our family, as help meet of my husband. 

The Lord convicted and converted me and made me into a new creation on September 1, 2013. Since then, I have been living by this verse and practicing biblical submission in my own marriage, with great  and amazing results that can only be attributed to God's Grace.

Ephesians 5:22-33 part:

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 

33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

April 17, 2004 - Wedding Day

Following my letting go and letting God, the Lord led me to my now mentor, friend, and sister in Christ, April Cassidy's blog, The Peaceful Wife, two weeks after I surrendered my all, to Him.

April Cassidy, The Peaceful Wife, praying with her head covered

I was convicted by The Peaceful Wife's piece on

"A Long Lost Secret of God To Strengthen Our Prayer Lives and Marriages."

In that piece, April shared in detail that wearing a head cover while praying gave her the:

"proper attitude toward my husband’s authority over me when I pray, knowing I have a symbol of his authority on my head.  It helps me assume a proper mindset in prayer, a proper mindset toward my husband, and a proper mindset toward God."

Given my very dominant and take-charge personality which in the past only led to self-righteous and prideful behavior, I felt that I needed a constant symbol of this new life in the Spirit that the Lord has blessed me with. Head-covering was the perfect reminder for me with regards to my submission and respect journey: to always be humble, to always know my place in the family, to always respect my husband and to always revere God.

This is the Bible verse that encourages women, wives especially, to have their heads covered, as a way to honor their husbands as their God-ordained earthly authorities. The last verse shows St. Paul saying, as I paraphrase it, that "if any man or woman will be contentious with this teaching, then just say that there is no such custom."  In short, "Let's not fight over it! To each his/her own conscience call."

                              1 Corinthians 11:3-16

Our firstborn, Therese

Therese

³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband^* is the head of his wife,^* and God is the head of Christ. ⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head,

With our thirdborn, Reuben

With our secondborn, Andre

⁵but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. ⁶For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. 

⁷For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection^* of God; but woman is the reflection^* of man. ⁸Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. ⁹Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. ¹⁰For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of^* authority on her head,^* because of the angels.¹¹Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. ¹²For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? 

With our youngest, Isabelle

Isabelle

¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, ¹⁵but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone is disposed to be contentious—we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

* * * * * * *

At church

Cooking lunch

It is my PERSONAL CONVICTION that I must keep my head veiled at Mass or covered  with a scarf, as I go about my daily chores and 
responsibilities at all times (unless circumstances dictate otherwise).

I don't aim to be legalistic on this and I don't aim to make you, dear reader, think that I am holier or more righteous because I practice head covering. No, certainly not! What I do want to encourage you on, is to pray over it and discern for yourself if by covering your head, you too would be able to revere the Lord more by practicing this wonderful and long-lost custom and also to always remind you of your own biblical role in your family, as your husband's help meet.

I do not know how long I will practice this custom, but I will continue with it for as long as I am led by the Spirit to do so. :)

May we all be richly blessed! :)


P.S.

Are you convinced that you need to cover too but are too shy/ill-at-ease to do so? Check out this link.
http://www.headcoveringmovement.com . More and more women are covering their heads in obedience to God. :)