[OLD REGGIE]

Like i said, Angels don't address sinners in that manner, IMVHO.

I don't even know how I let myself get caught up in this argument. I am prepared to believe Mary was sinless. I do believe Mary was "Blessed". I also believe Mary was a normal wife and had other children. This, in no way, diminishes her blessedness. It is just a fact.

Nobody has answered why it was hundreds of years before her "perpetual virginity" was an issue or why the early Church didn't question whether Jesus had brothers. It knew he did. I will argue on this subject.

[Pelayo]

I do believe Mary was "Blessed". I also believe Mary was a normal wife and had other children. This, in no way, diminishes her blessedness. It is just a fact.

But the early Church fathers disagree. They were closer to the time why would they lie?

Origin
"The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James(written around AD 120) [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the firstfruit among men of the purity which consists in [perpetual] chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity" (Commentary on Matthew 2:17 [A.D. 248]).