Part 1 Chapter 5: One Should Carry the Cross as Did

[尼古拉前执事]

Part 1 Chapter 5: One Should Carry the Cross as Did the Blessed Virgin Mary

[Reader Benjamin]

I had never considered that the Theotokos had carried her cross. I had never considered that she did not have a cross to bear. I am getting a better Idea about our crosses that we bear. I had thought that they all had to do with some kind of persecution we get when we follow Christ. That is only a part of it.

[TomS]

Page 28

Angel: "...Did not the pain swell in her heart as she wrapped him in swaddling cloth, touched his hands and feet, and reflected how those same hands and feet would one day be nailed to the cross?"

Hmm. I was not aware that Mary was told of the type of death her child would receive. Or even that he would be killed at young age.

And if she did know the outcome, then why later does the Angel say about when Jesus goes to the temple for three days and Mary and Joseph cannot find him:

"..how much more was the sorrow of the Mother of God, who assumed that her Son, indeed, not only her Son, but God's Son, has been lost?"

Arrggh. Inconsistencies.

Alos, this book supports the false teaching that Mary did not experience any birthing pains at the top of page 30. Right. The point of this chapter is to prove that Mary suffered more than any other human -- that she was not spared her crosses because she was the Theotokes -- but then we find out that is EXCEPT for the Cross of pain in childbirth. Right.

So far I am not very impressed by this book.

[Tessa]

Good points, questions guys. If in fact anyone did know Jesus would die on the cross I must say being a mother, he part about the Bogoroditsa (Theotokos) touching Jesus as a baby and reflecting how he would later be nailed to the cross really got me.

"And how mournful for her was the death of her beloved betrothed Joseph?"

Maybe it's a stupid question. When did Joseph die? How old was Jesus when he died?

[Reader Benjamin]

Alos, this book supports the false teaching that Mary did not experience any birthing pains at the top of page 30. Right. The point of this chapter is to prove that Mary suffered more than any other human -- that she was not spared her crosses because she was the Theotokes -- but then we find out that is EXCEPT for the Cross of pain in childbirth. Right.

Forgive me for not responding earlyer. I will try to answer this question as best as I can, I had hoped that someone more worthy than myself would answer this queation.

One: The Holy Theotokos did not experience birthpains, not because she was spared a cross, but because her conseption was not of the normal way. Her child birth, though normal, was without pain and her virginity was kept intact because of her unnatural conception and Who she bore.

Two: Though the Teotokoes may not of known all the details of her Son's death and suffering, she knew, better than anyone else at her time, the prophecys conserning her Son. She knew that he would suffer, and she may have even put together the prophecys about the cross and her Son suspecting that He may be crusified, becouse of what she had seen with criminals that were crusified in her days.

The Theotokoes had her crosses to bear, and this is what the book is showing us. Even if she did not "suffer" before the cross, she certainly suffered at the cross and the days after until the Resurrection.

I hope this has helped clear things up. The "Protoevangelium of James" is a good sorce and "The Life of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos" put out by The Holy Apostles Convent is the best compilation of the life of the Theotokos that I know of, others have confirmed this as well.

As for the questian of when Joseph reposed, In "The Life of the Virgin Mary" it is said that Joseph died just before Jesus started His ministry at the age of 110.[/quote]