Yesterday we imagined Mary and Joseph setting out from Nazareth to reach Bethlehem.

Today we think about Mary’s pregnancy due to an old custom of recalling the Annunciation on 18 December.

This began with the Mozarabic Rite in Toledo and the tradition remains in Spain where they speak of Our Lady of the O as it is the second day of the O Antiphons.

The Expectation was being observed in the 12th century at Barking Abbey and Bury St Edmunds Abbey.