O Adonai is today’s O Antiphon heard before the Gospel reading at Mass and the Magnificat at Evening Prayer.

From now until 22 December there will be an O Antiphon as the Messiah is daily called by an Old Testament title.

Today 18 December is known as the Expectation of Mary, or Our Lady of the O, as it falls during the O Antiphons week.

The day was first observed at Toledo as part of the Mozarabic rite in 656 dates from the 6th century. The O Antiphons emerged a century later.

As we think of Mary and Joseph leaving Nazareth about now for their long walk to Bethlehem, with a donkey maybe, so the Expectation of Mary recalls why they are setting out.

They need to be settled somewhere before Mary gives birth to the Christ Child.

So today is another opportunity, like the Translation of the Holy House on 10 December, to recall the Annunciation.

In some parishes there is a Posada custom with the figures of Mary and Joseph moving from house to house until arriving at the crib scene in church on Christmas Eve.

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent sometimes called Gaudete Sunday after the introit at Mass which starts Gaudete meaning Rejoice.

The candle lit on the wreath this morning represents John the Baptist and can be pink.

Indeed the vestments might also be pink. This is an old custom  reminding us that we are about mid way through Advent.

Just one more Sunday to go before Christmas. So we rejoice.

In real time we can say that Mary and Joseph are about to leave Nazareth (where that little house now in Loretto once stood) on their 90 mile journey to Bethlehem.

So this year the start of the Advent Antiphons today on 17 December is this year rather lost in the Third Sunday which takes precedence.

Although O Sapienta will not feature at this morning’s Mass it will be heard tonight at Evensong.

From from tomorrow the Advent mood changes as we at last look towards the birth of Christ. Look out for more on the Antiphons  tomorrow.

Meanwhile you could quietly prepare the crib for Christmas. At midday today in Rome people, especially children, will be taking the Christ Child figure from their crib to St Peter’s Square for the Pope to bless when he speaks from his window and leads the Angelus.

St Lucy is the big focus this morning in Scandinavia, especially Sweden, as well as Siracusa, Naples and Venice.

There will be outdoor processions in Sicily, Gran Canaria and Helsinki.

The Lucia figure is appearing with her crown of lighted candles reminding us of how the saint lit the way helping persecuted Christians along secret tunnels before her martyrdom in Sicily.

She has become a herald of Christmas and an example of the possible cost of following Baby Jesus .

Lussicatter, or Lucy Cat buns, which are said to look like cats are eaten all over Sweden at breakfast.

• Keeping Advent & Christmas is available from Wordery at £6.96  special price + free delivery.

This weekend we have an opportunity to look back nine months to the Annunciation on Saturday 25 March.

At the time we were all thinking about Mothering Sunday the next day.

This December weekend sees the annual celebration at Loreto in Italy where the Virgin Mary’s Nazareth house is now found inside a basilica.

The Holy House is the front part of the building where Mary and her parents lived in Nazareth. Here Mary may have been conceived (as we recalled yesterday).

It was also the scene of the Annunciation when Mary as a young woman was informed by the angel Gabriel that she was to be the mother of Jesus.

The tiny building, once attached to a cave, was transported from the Holy Land to Italy in 1273.

The Angeli family masterminded the operation which gave rise to the idea that the house was carried to Loreto by angels. It has inspired lovely iconography featuring angels carrying a house..

This year Our Lady of Loreto Day on 10 December, marking the arrival of the Holy House in Italy, will not have the usual wide observance as it  is the Second Sunday of Advent.

But in Loreto there is a celebration tonight.

On Sunday at the Church of Our Lady of Loretto & St Michael, in Musselburgh near Edinburgh, the congregation will sing their own Loreto hymn Wond’rous the throne from which Gabriel came  written and composed by Roy McGillivray, who died  year ago, and his wife Catrina.

A replica of the Holy House can be found at the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham in Norfolk.

Today is the Immaculate Conception when we focus on the VIrgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus.

We are celebrating the conception of the Virgin  Mary by her parents Anne and Joachim.

On 8 September in nine months, after the period of a pregnancy,  we celebrate Mary’s  birthday.

Mary was immaculate because she was born pure and free of sin ready to be the Mother of Jesus.

This morning in Rome a floral wreath has already been placed on the arm of Mary’s statue high up on a column in Spanish Place. This afternoon the Pope will add his flowers at the base.

In Lyon tonight, by a tradition dating from 1852, lights are placed on window ledges along the steep route uphill from the cathedral to Notre Dame de Fourvière.

After Vespers in the cathedral there is a candlelit procession which winds its way uphill to the hill-top basilica.

The big Lyon Fête des Lumières electric light and laser show is  recent modern addition.

Today is St Ambrose Day when many will think of that great Italian city of Milan which is associated with this saint who was its bishop from 374 to 397.

In Milan the Ambrosian Rite is the norm in church which not only means that the Mass is a little different but so is the calendar.

The Ambrosian Advent begins on the Sunday after St Martin’s Day on 11 November which means that in Milan next Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Advent.

This maybe gives more time to reflect than we have or even allow ourselves to have.

Today’s St Ambrose Day celebration in Milan Cathedral is at 5.30pm.

The National Trust has decided to be consistent by maintaining the name Father Christmas rather than Santa.

The Trust has been under fire for issuing the guideline to staff across its many sites.  As body with high standards it is correct.

The seasonal figure has been known in England as Father Christmas since Tudor times.

When he arrived for the first time in a department store, Beales of Bournemouth, in 1885 he was called Father Christmas.

The year before at Macy’s in New York he had been announced as Santa Claus. That is his American name derived from St Nicholas.

St Nicholas Day is today, Wednesday 6 December.

At least the National Trust did not stage Father Christmas appearances until this month. In the old days he was never seen in November.

Today there will be  a ceremony in a church at Demre in Turkey where Nicholas was buried in 342.

In 1089 his remains were moved to Bari in Italy where today there will be crowds visiting, a procession and fireworks.

There are many churches in England dedicated to Nicholas and Exeter Cathedral once had a relic brought from Demre.

TODAY

This evening at 5.15pm the Company of Parish Clerks in the City of London will gather at St Sepulchre’s for a service of Holy Communion on their patron saint’s day.

BOY BISHOPS

Boy Bishops used to be installed today. Salisbury Cathedral does so next Sunday when a choirboy is dressed as a bishop during evensong at 4.30pm.

Copies of Keeping Advent & Christmas are on sale at Church House Bookshop in Westminster and Southwark Cathedral shop.

Or online.

Today in many churches we light the first candle on the Advent wreath.

It’s not Christmas yet and the wreath with its four candles reminds us that there are four Sundays before we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Vestments today are purple except in Salisbury where they are blue by ancient tradition.

Our church service is less joyful than last week, no gloria for example, but reflective will special hymns as we think about Christ coming again.

Tonight there will be more Advent carol services in cathedrals to mark the start of this season.

Advent starts at dusk as we prepare to light the first Advent candle tomorrow on Advent Sunday.

Christmas is several weeks away.

Tonight there will be the first Advent carol services, often by candlelight, at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral.

In Oxford there are carols at Christ Church College.