Finally a response from someone who isn’t simply flaming!
Yes, you are very correct in discerning that the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, based on her sinlessness and the doctrine of Original sin, did not experience the pangs of labor. At least, several Church Fathers asserted so, using precisely your logic.
But try and grasp this: like other biblical prophecy, Revelation uses a prophetic sign in the present as a foreshadowing for events yet to come. Mary is that sign, but she is a sign for the church. So the woman in Revelation 12 is Mary, but she is a symbol, or archetype, for the Church. I was trying to explain to Quix that all that the Church achieves by bringing Christ to us, Mary shares in by bringing Christ into the world, so that the Church may bring him to us.
Did Mary experience labor pains as a result of her own original sin? Many church fathers speculated that she must not have.
Did Mary experience suffering as a result of dwelling in a fallen world? Absolutely. Mary was told “A sword shall pierce your heart” — Luke 2.
And in Catholic iconography, she is often pictured with a bleeding heart. Hence, the phrase.
For Mary, Christ’s birth was complete when he died on the cross, and was resurrected.
Is this the position of your church or are you speaking for yourself?
It stands to reason, that if a church sees itself as being the new Israel, that that church would see itself in that prophecy.
What is the significance of the twelve stars to the Presbyterian Church?