With all due respect, especially sex within holy matrimony is for God's glory.
Being married for nearly about a year-and-a-half now, I have only recently began to truly understand the wonder of marriage and everything in it, including sex. It is a wonderful thing that points to the glorious unity of Christ and his body, the holy catholic church.
Exactly right, and in fact, it points to the consummation of that unity in heaven.
Which is precisely why the ancient churches have monks, nuns, and celibate clerics. Sex within marriage is important, sacred, beautiful, and holy ... and so celibates offer it, all of it, for their whole lives, directly to God.
After all, if you're going to give God a sacrifice, don't you want to give him the very best thing you have to give him? Or should you give him some junk that you happened to have lying around?
Another way this is explained sometimes is that married sexuality is a sign of heaven, but celibates skip the sign and go directly to the heavenly reality here on earth. Because, after all, in heaven we will remain sexual beings, but sexual acts themselves will not exist. Our pleasure and bliss will come from our perfect intimacy with God, not our imperfect intimacy with our spouses.
“Our pleasure and bliss will come from our perfect intimacy with God, not our imperfect intimacy with our spouses.”
Very thoughtful way of putting it. Interesting.