Here is our discussion of chapter of Bulgakov’s book on the Mother of God.
And here is the passage I read at the beginning:
The Mother of God, although non-independently, femininely and so to say in a suffering way, passively, accompanies her Son along the whole path towards Golgotha, beginning from the manger in Bethlehem and the flight into Egypt, and she receives the torments of the cross. In her person Eve, the mother of the human race, suffers and is crucified. In church hymns she is called Lamb together with the Lamb. But if this seems beyond doubt relative to the earthly life of the Saviour and the Mother of God,why can this same correlation within certain limits not be extended to her very nativity itself? Why not accept that given the holiness of her spirit, even her all-pure birth, her participation in the burden of original sin by virtue of her acceptance not only of the likeness but also of the very flesh of sin, also has a sacrificial character, to a certain degree? Out of love for suffering humanity self-renouncing physicians inoculate themselves with the most frightful diseases and settle in the midst of lepers. But precisely this same power of sacrificial readiness, of saving love is accumulated in the whole series of ancestors of the Mother of God, and it gives a completely exceptional meaning and uniqueness to her own nativity. In any case one must not forget that this birth was foreknown and proclaimed by God Himself in paradise (”the seed of the Woman will trample the head of the serpent”) and it was announced by the Holy Spirit to the prophets David, Solomon, Isaiah and others. And so, the Mother of God by the power of her personal freedom and the grace of the Holy Spirit is completely free of every personal sin during and after her birth. Therefore, original sin has power in her only as an infirmity of human nature, but it is deprived of its seductiveness and is powerless to summon sinfulness even as an imagined assault of sin or an involuntary movement of lust.Such is the understanding of this question in Orthodox doctrine, in as much as one can establish it on the basis of the whole prayer life of the Church.
