As we study Mary....

You might want to ponder this little interchange that I have copied and pasted from John Zmirak's Crisis Magazine, Church section.  You can click on this to see the whole article.  It is a little earthy, but worth a few minutes.  The sections copied from below are the end of the article.  It is interesting to see how he got there....the title of the article is The Devil Never Wore Diapers.  I found the perspective on sex especially interesting.  Now I know that you will go have a look at it! :-)

Q. So why is it important that Mary remained a virgin, instead of having subsequent children with Joseph?

You’d have to ask God why He did things that way, but I’ll toss out a hint why it’s fitting: Because God’s union with Mary was a marriage and not some (Zeus-like) one night stand, it was sacramental and indissoluble. Mary wasn’t simply some useful, dispensable vessel, but a “type” of redeemed mankind, united again with its creator. Her single-minded devotion to Him, and to her Son, is the model for every Christian life. The fact that she could have told the angel “No” marks Christianity radically off from pagan accounts of gods consorting with human women. It also connects to the Church’s insistence that man’s will is free and God’s grace can be resisted. Adam and Eve were free not to fall, and Mary was free not to help pick us up again. Ironically, while Jesus would be tempted, He could not have sinned; the Virgin Mary could have. She simply didn’t. In one way, that’s more impressive.

Q. And that is why Catholics and Orthodox make so much out of Mary?

That, and the fact that she keeps appearing to us and giving us messages from heaven. Which also makes a strong impression.

Surely this might engender some thoughts or comments????