www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Do any Byzantine Catholics practice the tradition of "veiling"?

Dear Father David,

In Greece, no one wears head scarves.

The only place I have donned one there, and saw other visitors (though not all) wearing head coverings was when I visited my nun acquaintance's monastery in Karditsa and its sister monastery in Thebes (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) founded by Archimandrite Dionysios (spiritual child of the saintly Elder Aemelianos of the Holy Mountain).

http://www.fhc.org/ypsosis/holycrossmonastery/en/history1.html

The sisterhood there is multinational, (pure American, British, Cypriot, Israeli, Greek, German, Russian, etc.) so perhaps this good etiquette got started from the visitors to the Ukrainian and Russian sisters?!

Ofcourse, here in the U.S., at the monastery of Elder Ephraim that I visit often, not only do I wear a head scarf, but unlike the way I wear them in Russian churches (some hair showing infront), I try to the best of my ability to cover all my hair--front and back-- completely.

Respectfully in Christ,
Alice

Dear Dr Eric,

May the Lord bless you!

Yup, that's me. The only priest there.

For your son:

Fr David

Yes, my wife also wears her scarf in this way. That reminds me. I said "my wife," when I usually say 'Matushka,' 'Presvytera,' or 'Khouriye.' When I was pretty newly ordained, Presvytera spoke of me as "my husband" to a pious Greek lady of our acquaintance. The Lady, not skipping a beat, said to her, "but Presvytera, he is not your husband, he is our father." O humble moment!

Fr David

My parish is a Melkite mission located in san Bernardino, CA (Saint Philip).Here many of the Arab women, and others as well, cover their head with either a full scarf or a smaller covering for just the top of the head. Most are either plain white or blcak but some are rather ornate with a kind of what I would call a Paisley print look. I have seen older women from the old country, younger native born American women and some women who are former Orthodox(in one case Syrian Orthodox). Most of the non Arab women I see covering their heads are former Latin rite.Also, some of the women cover their head only prior to receiving communion but the majority do so for the entire service(on Sundays including matins).

Kathleen,
Hi. Were you their last week? I'm the one who asked the question. I had the three girls and the little boy. The one who made the gingerbread groundhog cookies for groundhog day.
Jodi

Father David,
Could you explain what OCA means?
Thanks

You got me LOL. I am Michaela's mother we had the little blond girl and two servers. I asked for the recipe. The cookies are yummy. Michaela and I cover at Liturgy, Mass and prayer. I cover almost 100% of the time I go anywhere.