Feast day: December 18
The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
An old Advent feast, especially dear in Spain, honoring Mary in the final days of her waiting — the Mother of God on the eve of giving birth to the Savior.
The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an old and tender feast of the final days of Advent, honoring Mary in the last stage of her waiting — the Mother of God, heavy with child, on the very eve of giving birth to the Savior of the world. It turns the Church's gaze, in the days just before Christmas, to the expectant mother and the imminent coming of her Son.
The feast is especially dear in Spain, where it is known by the affectionate name 'Our Lady of the O.' The name comes from the great 'O Antiphons' — the solemn invocations of Christ sung at evening prayer in the last days before Christmas, each beginning with the exclamation 'O': 'O Wisdom,' 'O Root of Jesse,' 'O Key of David,' 'O Dawn,' 'O King of the Nations,' 'O Emmanuel' — cries of a world longing for its Redeemer.
It was established so that, amid the bustle and preparation of the season, the faithful might keep before their eyes the figure of Mary in her quiet, prayerful expectation, and unite their own Advent waiting to hers. Who better to teach the Church how to wait for the coming of Christ than the woman who carried him beneath her heart and awaited his birth?
Kept on December 18, in the final stretch of Advent, the feast makes Mary's expectancy the model of the Church's own. As she awaited the birth of her Son with faith, longing, and joy, so the faithful are called to await his coming — at Christmas, in their hearts, and at the end of all things — with the same trustful hope.
Called in Spain 'Our Lady of the O' for the longing 'O' antiphons sung this week, it makes Mary's expectancy the heart of the last days before Christmas.
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