The Expectation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. “Nuestra Señora De La O.” The Feast Of Our Lady Of O. Feast Day 18 December.

Text is from "The Liturgical Year", by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B,
unless stated otherwise.

"The Liturgical Year".
Volume 1.
Advent.

The Expectation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
   “Nuestra Señora De La O.”
   The Feast Of Our Lady Of O.
   Feast Day 18 December.

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.

"The Annunciation".

Artist: Francesco Albani (1578–1660).

Date: First half of the 17th-Century.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.

Current location: Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Author: Francesco Albani (1578–1660).

(Wikimedia Commons)

This Feast, which is now kept not only throughout the whole of Spain but in many other parts of The Catholic World, owes its origin to the Bishops of The Tenth Council of Toledo, in 656 A.D.

These Prelates thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of Celebrating The Feast of The Annunciation on 25 March, inasmuch as this joyful Solemnity frequently occurs at the time when The Church is intent upon The Passion of Our Lord, so that it is sometimes obliged to be Transferred into Easter Time, with which it is out of harmony for another reason; they therefore 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 25 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 18 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 (Editor: Note that Abbot Guéranger was writing circa 1870).

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, O Holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire thou hadst to see Him, Who had been concealed for nine months in thy chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of The Heavenly Father, Who is also thine; 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 thy desires and ours. Make us re-double our attention to the great Mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful Prayers for us, that, when the Solemn Hour has come, Our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entrance into our hearts.

Mass: Roráte cœli désuper.
Commemoration: Of The Feria.
Preface: Of The Blessed Virgin Mary: Et te in Expectatione.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO OUR LADY.

O Virgo Virginum,

quomodo fiet istud ?

quia nec primam similem visa es,

nec habere sequentem.

Filiae Jerusalem,

quid me admiramini ?

Divinum est mysterium

hoc quod cernitis.

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.

The following Text is from CATHOLICISM.ORG

18 December is a Feast of long-standing in The Latin Church. Though its Mass and Office will not be offered Liturgically in most places (owing to its not being a Universal Feast), "The Expectation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary” has origins going back at least to 7th-Century A.D. Spain.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a small entry on the Feast. It tells us of the peculiar name the Feast was given in Spain:

The Feast of 18 December was called, even in The Liturgical Books, “Santa Maria de la O,” because, on that day , the Clerics in The Choir, after Vespers, used to utter a loud and protracted “O,” to express the longing of the Universe for The Coming of The Redeemer (Tamayo, Mart. Hisp., VI, 485). The Roman “O” Antiphons have nothing to do with this term, because they are unknown in The Mozarabic Rite. This Feast and its Octave were very popular in Spain, where the people still call it “Nuestra Señora de la O.”

The O Antiphons are works of surpassing beauty in themselves, and worthy of meditation during these days. That they have no formal connection to this Marian Feast of Advent, affirms all the more the common root of O in these Liturgical usages. This common root is the exclamation O as an expression of longing, a sigh of the heart of ancient Israel for The Coming of The Redeemer.

And during Advent’s four weeks, we Christians put ourselves in the place of The Old Testament Faithful who, for four thousand years (according to The Vulgate chronology) awaited The Coming (Advent) of The Messias. As a cry of eager anticipation, The O has an affinity for that other word we see all over The Advent Liturgy (including in The O Antiphons): Veni !!! (Come).

And who better than Mary to show us how to expect Jesus’ Coming ? She, who, in the penetrating phrase of Saint Augustine, “conceived Christ in her mind before conceiving Him in her body,” is the perfect model of Holy “Great Expectations.”

Sancta Maria de la O, ora pro nobis !

“Nuestra Señora de la O,”

Artist: Jesuit Priest, Missionary, and Painter, Bernardo Bitti,

Church of Saint Peter, Lima, Perú.

Abbot Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.

Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, France, from 1837-1875.

Author of "The Liturgical Year".

Date: 1874.

The Print-Maker was Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1834–1887).

This File: 7 May 2007 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.

Author: The original uploader was Ikanreed at English Wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)