The Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Expectation


Today is the feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and it is one of the liturgy's loveliest old Advent festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fr. Mark writes about it here.

Fr. Peter West of Priests for Life shares a beautiful reflection on Advent and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which expresses the theme of this feast day so well.

From The Expectation of the Feast of Our Lady blog: The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the lesser known feasts of Our Lady, but it was widely celebrated in Spain, Italy and parts of Central Europe. It falls within the period of O Sapientia, which begins on December 17th with the great 'O' Antiphons for the Magnificat at vespers up to December 23rd. As a result it is suppressed along with most other feasts in that period in the Novus Ordo of Paul VI. In the missal and breviary up to 1962 it was commemorated for certain places. MORE

The intercession of Our Lady under the title of her Expectation has been called upon by women unable to bear children and there is a novena for this.
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