{"id":3044,"date":"2007-12-18T15:10:26","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T15:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/12\/feast-of-the-expectation-of-th\/"},"modified":"2007-12-18T15:10:26","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T15:10:26","slug":"feast-of-the-expectation-of-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2007\/12\/feast-of-the-expectation-of-th\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Masolino_Roma_SClemente_Cappella_SCaterina_Maria_annunziata_1425.jpg\"<\/a>
\nYes, today, December 18th, is one of the liturgy’s loveliest old Advent festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that of the Expectatio Partus<\/a><\/em>. It was kept by nearly the entire Latin Church. The Marquess of Bute calls it, in his fine old translation of the Breviary, “The Blessed Virgin Mary Looking Shortly To Be Delivered.” It was also called in Spain, and elsewhere, Nuestra Señora de la O<\/em>, and this because, after Vespers, the clergy in choir used to give voice to a loud and protracted “O” to express the yearning of the universe for the advent of the Redeemer.
\nLooking first at the Office for the feast, one discovers that the Invitatory Antiphon is the greeting of the Archangel to the Virgin of Nazareth: “Hail Mary, full of grace, * the Lord is with thee.” The antiphons on the psalms of Matins are all taken from the Advent Office. The lessons are Isaiah’s prophecy of the Virgin with Child (Is 7:10), a passage from Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo on the Maidenhood of Blessed Mary, and one from the Venerable Bede on the Annunciation Gospel. The final responsory is the glorious Fourth Mode Suscipe verbum<\/em>, “Receive, O Virgin Mary, receive the word of the Lord, which is sent thee by His Angel.”
\nThe Collect throughout the day is that of Lady Day<\/a> in March:
\nO God who didst will that Thy Word should,
\nby the message of an Angel,
\ntake flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
\ngrant unto us, we beseech Thee,
\nthat all we who do believe her to be in very deed
\nthe Mother of God,
\nmay be holpen by her prayers in Thy sight.<\/em>
\nAt Lauds and the Hours, the antiphons are those of Lady Day, while the hymns remain those of the Advent Office. The Magnificat Antiphon is the lovely O Virgo Virginum<\/em>, composed in the same Second Mode melody as the Great O Antiphons:
\n\"Virgin1.jpg\"
\nO maiden of maidens,
\nhow shall this be,
\nsince neither before nor henceforth hath there been,
\nnor shall be such another?
\nDaughters of Jerusalem,
\nwhy look ye curiously upon me?
\nWhat ye see is a mystery of God.<\/em>
\nI would venture to suggest that the Office and Mass of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary are today, more than ever before, worthy of celebration and meditation, given that the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God is roundly mocked by many. Even in the minds of many of the faithful, enfeebled by a forty year dearth of popular orthodox catechesis, a tragic confusion holds sway concerning the privileges of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in particular, her virginity before, during, and after childbirth. There are many, alas, who, affected by various mutations of creeping Nestorianism<\/a> and Arianism<\/a>, have no grasp of what it means to call the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.<\/em> Those who do not confess the privileges of the Blessed Virgin Mary, honouring them and celebrating them, fall inevitably into one or another of the classic Christological heresies.
\nAll of this makes me want to open my Processionale Monasticum<\/a><\/em> to page 146 and sing, Gaude Maria, Virgo, cunctas haereses sola interemisti<\/em>:
\nRejoice, O Mary,
\nby whose mighty hand the Church hath victory
\nover her foes [every heresy] achieved,
\nsince thou to Gabriel’s word of quickening power
\nin lowliness hast listened, and believed
\n\u2014 thou, still a virgin, in thy blessed womb
\nhast God Incarnate of thy flesh conceived,
\nand still, in heaven, of that virginity remainest
\nafter childbirth unbereaved.
\nV. Blessed art thou that hast believed,
\nfor there is a performance of those things
\nwhich were told thee from the Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, today, December 18th, is one of the liturgy’s loveliest old Advent festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that of the Expectatio Partus. It was kept by nearly the entire Latin Church. The Marquess of Bute calls it, in his fine old translation of the Breviary, “The Blessed Virgin Mary Looking Shortly To Be Delivered.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-liturgy","category-blessed-virgin-mary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-N6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}