The Phantom Scribbler

The Japanese saying 七転八起 (Shichiten Hakki) literally means: Fall down seven times; get up eight. In a flood of troubles, bear up and continue. A certain brother asked Abba Sisoes: “Counsel me, Father, for I have fallen to sin. What am I to do?” The Elder said to him: “When you fall, get up again.” With bitterness the sinning brother continued: “Ah! Father, I got up, yet I fell to the same sin again.” The Elder, so as not to discourage the brother, answered: “Then get up again and again.” The young man asked with a certain despondency: “How long can I do that, Father?” The Elder, giving him courage, said to the brother: “Until the end of your life, whether you be found in the commendable attempt at lifting yourself up from sin or falling again to it. For wherever it is that a man is found at the last moment of his life on earth, whether it be in things good or evil, there he will be judged, going forth either to punishment or to reward.” – St Sisoes the Great in The Evergetinos, vol. 1

Probably, the most troublesome aspect of Catholicism and/or Orthodoxy for Protestants is their veneration of Mary.  Certainly, that was the case for me when I started looking into it.  All those prayers and statues and icons honoring her seemed like idolatry.  There are many aspects to her veneration that I found troublesome, but I'm going to focus on just one.  I couldn't figure out why Catholics and Orthodox said Mary was "ever-virgin" (meaning she was a virgin her ENTIRE life, not just before the birth of Jesus) when Scripture clearly said she wasn't.  Why was this issue so important?  I think this one issue can explain all the other things Catholics and Orthodox believe about Mary.  It is important, because it goes to what we believe about Who Jesus Is.  The explanations that most Catholics gave me generally fell along the lines of how it wasn't against Scripture to believe Mary was perpetually Virgin.  And this is the case.  Protestants point to Matthew 1