Dom
Prosper Guéranger:
This Feast which is now kept, not only throughout the whole of Spain, but in almost all the Churches of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the Bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo in 656. These Prelates having thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March inasmuch as this joyful solemnity frequently occurs at the time when the Church is intent upon the Passion of our Lord and is sometimes obliged to be transferred into Easter Time with which it is out of harmony for another reason — they decreed that, henceforth, in the Church of Spain there should be kept, eight days before Christmas, a solemn Feast with an Octave, in honour of the Annunciation, and as a preparation for the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity. In course of time, however, the Church of Spain saw the necessity of returning to the practice of the Church of Rome, and of those of the whole world, which solemnise the twenty-fifth of March as the day of our Lady’s Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. But such had been, for ages, the devotion of the people for the Feast of the eighteenth of December, that it was considered requisite to maintain some vestige of it. They discontinued, therefore, to celebrate the Annunciation on this day but the faithful were requested to consider, with devotion, what must have been the sentiments of the Holy Mother of God during the days immediately preceding her giving him birth. A new Feast was instituted, under the name of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin’s Delivery. This Feast, which sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the Feast of O, on account of the Great Antiphons which are sung during these days and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo Virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation together with the O Adonai, the Antiphon of the Advent Office) — is kept with great devotion in Spain. A High Mass is sung, at a very early hour, each morning during the Octave, at which all who are with child, whether rich or poor, consider it a duty to assist that they may thus honour our Lady’s Maternity and beg her blessing upon themselves.
It is not to be wondered at that the Holy See has approved of this pious practice being introduced into almost every other country. We find that the Church of Milan, long before Rome conceded this feast to the various dioceses of Christendom, celebrated the Office of our Lady’s Annunciation on the sixth and last Sunday of Advent, and called the whole week following the Hebdomada de Exceptato (for thus the popular expression had corrupted the word Expectato). But these details belong strictly to the archaeology of Liturgy, and enter not into the plan of our present work. Let us, then, return to the Feast of our Lady’s Expectation which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent. Most just indeed it is, Holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire you had to see Him who had been concealed for nine months in your chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also yours; to come to that blissful hour of his Birth, which will give Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy your desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery. Complete our preparation by your powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour is come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entering into our hearts.
THE
GREAT ANTIPHON TO OUR LADY
O
Virgin of virgins ! How shall this be! for never was there one like
thee, nor will there ever be. Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye
wondering at me? What ye behold, is a divine mystery.
On this
day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Philippi in Macedonia, the birthday of the holy
martyrs Rufus and Zosimus (107 AD), who were of the number of the
disciples by whom the primitive church was founded among the Jews and
Greeks. Their happy martyrdom is mentioned by St. Polycarp in his
Epistle to the Philippians.
At Laodicea in Syria, the martyrdom of the Saints
Theotimus and Basilian.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Quinctus, Simplicius
and others, who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian.
In the same country, St. Moysetes, martyr.
Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Victurus, Victor,
Victorinus, Adjutor, Quartus and thirty others.
At Mopsuestia in Cilicia, St. Auxentius, bishop,
who, while he was a soldier under Licinius, preferred to surrender
his military insignia rather than to offer grapes to Bacchus. Having
been made bishop, he was renowned for merit and rested in peace.
At Tours, St. Gratian, consecrated first bishop of
that city by Pope St. Fabrian. Celebrated for many miracles, he
calmly went to his repose in the Lord.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs,
confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
