Dear Friends,
All I can say about the priestly beard is that if I were a priest in our tradition, I would wear a cassock all the time, with as long a beard as would still reveal my natural handsomeness
, a nice long prayer rope or lestovka on my left arm and a long chain with Pectoral Cross.
(The above is reason enough, for some, to want to become a Priest in our Church, no?)
Now I come to the serious part of my post . . .
When I was in high school, long hair was the norm and people like me with short hair, were ridiculed.
Even my religion priest thought of me as conservative because of my hair-length etc.
Well, I showed them . . .
I found the place in the New Testament where St Paul, I believe, emphatically states that it is a woman's glory to have long hair, but it is to a man's shame to have long locks.
As our Principal once spoke to our class and mentioned about how long hair is not only the recent fad, but is also how Christ Himself wore His hair, I got up and contradicted him . . .
I said, "Father, Christ wore short hair - by the standards of His day!"
Father was quite concerned that I was contradicting him - you didn't do that in a snooty Catholic private high school - and turned to my religion teacher, Fr. Kennedy.
Fr. Kennedy smiled - he had VERY short hair, you see - and told the Principal he trusted me to handle myself in the matter . . .
I showed the Principal the scriptural "proof text" and said, "If St Paul said that, Father, and scripture cannot be controverted (
), then this MUST mean that Christ had short hair, even for the standards of His day and time . . ."
Father Principal had to agree - and give in, once again, to the "Bible Boy."
I still think he hasn't forgiven me to this day.
Alex
). I have often thought of the same response to the long hair question but was afraid of sounding like a Protestant. 
