Question about Mary

[brendenseth]

My wife just asked me this question and I didn’t know, so I would like some help. When Mary gave birth to Jesus does anyone know if she felt the normal pains of child birth?

 

[bzkoss236]

This should be of some help:

Did Mary suffer in childbirth?

 

[NeedImprovement]

My wife just asked me this question and I didn’t know, so I would like some help. When Mary gave birth to Jesus does anyone know if she felt the normal pains of child birth?

Precisely what our Blessed Mother felt at that moment would be difficult to put into words, that is, if we knew exactly. Depending on what we read , we can even find meditations speculating that she may have been in a communion of ecstasy with our Heavenly Father as the time drew near.

What the Church proposes as dogma worthy of our assent of Catholic faith is that our Blessed Mother remained a virgin before, during and after Christ’s birth :

"From the beginning it has been constantly present in the Church’s belief. Her virginity ‘during and after giving birth’, although implicit in the title virgin already attributed to Mary from the Church’s earliest days, became the object of deep doctrinal study since some began explicitly to cast doubts on it. Pope St. Hormisdas explains that ‘the Son of God became Son of man, born in time in the manner of a man, opening his mother’s womb to birth (cf. Lk 2:23) and, through God’s power, not dissolving his mother’s virginity’. This doctrine was confirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which states that the firstborn Son of Mary did not diminish his Mother’s virginal integrity, but sanctified it (Lumen gentium, n. 57).

The Virgin Birth of Jesus is a Dogma of Faith

From the above , inferrals are drawn which are also expressed in similarly definitive terms - " Virgin birth", “miraculous birth” , “Mary ever-virgin” .

So when considering whether Mary felt the “normal pains of childbirth” we might first consider whether a *miraculous birth *is identical to normal birth. That would be a logical place to start. A priest friend of mine is known to put it very simply when asked. He says, “Jesus came forth from our Blessed Mother’s womb the same way He entered it - miraculously.”

While we encounter well thought out replies saying that since our Blessed Mother was immaculately conceived and without the slightest stain of sin, she was not required to suffer , I wonder if we might be selling Her a little short by failing to speculate whether, as the Mother of our suffering Saviour, She would’ve chosen to suffer. We recall the angel Gabriel brought our Blessed Mother an invitation - not a command : She was free to accept or refuse.

We know Mary the Mother of God suffered. We even have a devotions to Our Lady of Sorrows (who is also the Patroness of a some well known religious communities) and to the Seven Sorrows of Mary . Could any other mother honestly deny that our Blessed Mother - the Virgin Mary suffered at the foot of the Cross ?

That , most interestingly, is where Bishop Fulton Sheen drew a direct line : From the virgin birh , the miraculous birth of our Lord Jesus , to our Blessed Mother at the foot of the Cross:

This excerpt is taken from the book The Seven Last Words, Fulton J. Sheen , [pgs 25, 26]

“ ‘Behold your son !’ It was the second nativity ! Mary had brought forth her First-born without labour, in the cave of Bethlehem; she now brings forth her second-born – John, in the labours of the Cross. At this moment Mary is undergoing the pains of childbirth, not only for her second-born who is John, but also for the millions who will be born to her in Christian ages as ‘Children of Mary.’

Now we can understand why Christ was called her ‘First-born.’ It was not because she was to have other children by the blood of flesh but because she was to have other children by the blood of her heart. Truly, indeed, the Divine condemnation against Eve is now renewed against the new Eve, Mary , for she is bringing forth her children in sorrow.”

 

[dmar198]

My wife just asked me this question and I didn’t know, so I would like some help. When Mary gave birth to Jesus does anyone know if she felt the normal pains of child birth?

Take a look at the prophecy of Isaiah 66:7-8 - “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.”

This is a prophecy that teaches both the painless birth and the spiritual motherhood of Mary over the Church. For the “male child” she gives birth to is Christ, and the “nation” she brings forth is the Church. And the one is without pain, while the other proceeds as soon as she is in labor.