Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 218.  Sat 12-21-91 23:17  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Rick Forest
 Subject: Mary

+-
| Dear Father Mateo;
|        I am a Baptist seminary student in Louisville, KY., and worndered
| about
| the Catholic view on a certain topic. In a church history class, a
| discussion came up about the various views of Mary and her role in the
| birth of Jesus. Did she go through labor pains? I realize that this may
| seem a trivial question and no disrespect is intended, but this does
| inform us as to the idea of Mary as the "mother of God."
|        Any help in this question would be appreciated.
|  
|        Rick
 
Dear Rick,
 
Welcome to this conference.  Your question on whether Our Lady
suffered labor pains while giving birth to Our Lord is part of
the larger question of her perpetual virginity.  The Catholic
doctrine is that Mary was/is a virgin before, during and ever
after childbirth ("ante partum, in partu, post partum").
 
The Jesuit theologian, Michael Gruenthaner, expresses the "during
childbirth" part of our doctrine in this way:  "It is an article
of the Catholic faith that she did so (i.e., gave birth to Jesus)
without suffering the usual lesions of the tissues which occur in
ordinary childbirth, so that she remained a virgin physically even
in parturition.  The passage of the child through her body has been
compared to the transit of light through crystal"   (Michael J.
Gruenthaner, S. J. "Mary in the New Testament" in  J. Carol's
"Mariology", vol. 1, page 92).
 
Early Christians in their meditation on Scripture saw in Moses'
burning bush a type or figure of this Christian mystery: as the
fire blazed without changing the bush, so Christ came forth from
Mary's womb without disturbing the integrity of her body.  Others
are reminded of Mary's virginity "in partu" when they meditate on
Jesus' entering and leaving the locked Upper Room, where the
disciples were gathered after the Resurrection.  This tropic use
of Scripture is not used to prove doctrine, but to foster piety.
 
I hope this helps your discussions, and welcome other questions
about our teachings and practice.
 
                                Your brother in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo