What? You all managed not to worship Mary, and your Traditional Marion beliefs are firmly believed because it is all Tradition, right? OTOH, I do have an impression that the Orthodox put scripture a notch higher than extra-scriptural material. Is that correct? If so, then the same cannot be said of Catholicism. If I'm still on track, then what you "could" be saying is that the Marian doctrines were relegated to extra-scriptural Tradition because that doesn't carry as much weight as scripture, therefore the "threat" of misunderstanding (worship of Mary) is less. How am I doing? :)
If "not so good", then all (or any) of the Marian doctrines could have easily been included by the scriptural authors, with specific provisos against worship of Mary. It just seems odd to me that many, many "lesser" women in the Bible got tons more ink than Mary ever did. From the authors' points of view, why not be proud of her place in humanity and tell about it? I promise I would have bought it, I would have bought all of it. :)
Christ is a Mystery that is not ours to "understand." If we believe in Christ, we believe that nothing about Him is "natural" or "usual," whether it is his seedless Incarnation, His miraculous Birth, or His death.
But you are making SPECIFIC conclusions about this mystery. If you told me that the Orthodox position was that you had no idea whether Mary was ever-virgin after giving birth, or whether Christ passed through the birth canal normally or not, then your above would match. But you have gone beyond the mystery, and taken a position on these issues.
BTW, if nothing about Christ was "natural" or "usual", then ... um ... what would you say about his bodily functions? How did that work exactly? :)
Given what we do know of her, we could safely say that her womb became the Tabernacle, and I seriously doubt that any of the apostles or fathers would have ever thought of it being violated after Christ's Birth.
Violated? Where is the violation? She was married. --- Her womb became the Tabernacle? The Tabernacle was a holy place of worship. Is that what Mary's womb became? :)
It was a busy weekend and I missed a lot. Er...do I really want to go back and read about this??? ;O)
I think our views on that are identical. The scripture is, of course, the inspired and inerrant word of God that is especially useful in disputed such as this one, and in that sense it is "a notch higher", but it is a subset of Tradition nevertheless.
Her womb became the Tabernacle? The Tabernacle was a holy place of worship. Is that what Mary's womb became?
You better beleive it. Of course. Her womb, as the Tabernacle, contained the Word of God.