Gravidez e maternidade
Gravidez e maternidade são bênçãos celebradas na Bíblia. Deus forma cada criança no ventre, cuida da mãe e da família, e abençoa a geração dos justos.
Filhos são herança do Senhor
Deus abençoa a fertilidade e o crescimento das famílias. Cada criança é obra de suas mãos, conhecida e amada antes mesmo de nascer.
Blessed shalt thou be among all people. No one shall be barren among you of either sex, neither of men nor cattle.
The children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes, and growing exceedingly strong they filled the land.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, from henceforth now and for ever.
I know that the Lord will do justice to the needy, and will revenge the poor.
But as for the just, they shall give glory to thy name: and the upright shall dwell with thy countenance.
Thy wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of thy house.
Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God?
Força e cuidado na gravidez
Deus dá forças à mulher grávida e a sustenta em cada etapa. Sua graça é suficiente e seu poder se aperfeiçoa na fraqueza.
I can do all these things in him who strengtheneth me.
And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Shall not my soul be subject to God? for from him is my salvation.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb. Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey hairs I will carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I will carry and will save.
A bênção da maternidade
A Bíblia honra a maternidade como ministério sagrado. As mães são instrumentos de Deus para formar vidas e transmitir a fé.
Yet she shall be saved through childbearing; if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.
Her children rose up, and called her blessed: her husband, and he praised her.
And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God.
And the Lord visited Sara, as he had promised: and fulfilled what he had spoken. And she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold her.
And Isaac besought the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and he heard him, and made Rebecca to conceive.
And it came to pass when the time was come about, Anna conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel: because she had asked him of the Lord.
Proteção divina
Deus protege a mãe e o bebê, guardando-os de todo mal. Ele acompanha cada momento com ternura e fidelidade.
A psalm of a canticle on the sabbath day.
It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O most High.
Let peace be in thy strength: and abundance in thy towers.
For the sake of my brethren, and of my neighbours, I spoke peace of thee.
Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child, and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award. But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life.
Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.
Esperança e promessa
A maternidade é caminho de esperança. Como Sara, Ana e Isabel, as mães encontram na fé a força para aguardar as promessas de Deus.
By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised,
And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.
And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory.
And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him.
The wicked have wrought upon my back: they have lengthened their iniquity.