Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but today my mind is on the exhaustion of Mary. Full with child, and bearing the punishment of Eve, she has travelled a long way by foot and donkey to arrive in Bethlehem... she is exhausted, but tomorrow that will all come to an end with the final pains of childbirth and the cry of God’s own Son. Was that first utterance of Christ a prayer, and did Mary join Him in it?