December 18 + The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast celebrated on December 18th by nearly the entire Latin Church, has been kept not only throughout the whole of Spain, but also in many countries like Portugal, Italy and Poland as well as in a few religious orders. In older editions of missals, this feast is still listed as a Votive Mass.

Celebrated a week before Christmas Day, the Blessed Virgin Mary, well advanced in pregnancy, is honored in the highest dignity of her Divine Motherhood as she awaits the arrival of her Divine Son, Jesus.

It is during this special week that we are given the gift of time to contemplate the joyful hope of Our Lady in the final days of her wait for the birth of the Redeemer and the moment when she will gaze for the first time upon the face of God.