Posted on 08/16/2005 1:48:10 PM PDT by NYer
Good article.
NFP saved my marriage. There's just so much more to it than "abstain during fertile days". I wish every couple would take classes and see what is available to them! I'm glad we found it when we did. :o)
One More Soul (A Non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the truth about the blessings of children and the harms of contraception..)
NFP is so great. It just makes you rather wow-ed about your own body --- and your spouses body ---- and the great way you-know-Who designed this whole sex project. I mean WOW!
I have tried to see the difference, spiritualy speaking, between NFP and birth control. I am a diehard Catholic and I'm coming up real short about the differences.
For instance........why is the couple who uses NFP any more within the guidelines of Jesus' teaching than the couple who uses birth control. I'm not trying to start any wars here or trying to interject my own beliefs, etc. I am having real difficulty seeing the difference. A couple practicing birth control is trying to prevent a pregnancy as is a couple using NFP......someone please clarify. Again, I'm not trying to place a wedge, I'm just really trying to intellectually and spiritually seek some clarification. At best, I believe the difference in the two birth control methods to be nominal.
If God gave you a birth control device as part of your anatomy, there would be no difference.
The God-given method of birth control is knowledge of fertility cycles and abstinence. If you use these, you use your body as intended. If you divert, block, or render infertile the sperm, you pervert the sexual act to exclude
(1) God, who is a partner in the procreative aspect of the marital act;
(2) Your spouse, who is no longer fully engaged in the unitive aspect of the marital act.
ping
Dearest and I talk about this a lot. We just had our first interview with my local church. The deacon was very delighted to hear we intend to follow church teaching on this.
Dear Prolifeconservative,
I understand your difficulty. I admit that intellectually, it's tough for me to see the difference. I accept on faith.
However, you ask:
"A couple practicing birth control is trying to prevent a pregnancy as is a couple using NFP......someone please clarify."
Here's a helpful analogy. A dieter is someone who is trying to lose weight. So is a bulimic. One does so by abstaining from overeating, the other by eating all he cares to eat, and then purging.
Both are aiming toward the same goal, but one METHOD is legitimate, and one METHOD is not.
Hope that helps.
sitetest
Good for you and Dearest. The use of NFP to avoid pregnancy can be a struggle, but compared to the alternatives ... egad! Besides, starting a family at your stage of life, I'd think "avoidance" is the last thing on your mind :-). There is nothing more enjoyable than a Personal Relationship during your ovulation. The Urge to Merge is an unfailing indicator of fertility, at least in my experience - I even note it on my NFP charts, when I'm bothering to chart! Gosh, what was God thinking?
http://www.cyclebeads.com/
Getting one of these so I can get used to it. I find that I'm getting more in tune with my body. I also know that eating no meat shortens my *moon time*. If the urge to merge indicates fertility then I'm very fertile :O)
This is an excellent question and one that many other catholics wrestle with. No need to don the asbestos suit :-). Perhaps the following can provide you with a clear and concise response.
"Apart from the issue of side-effects, which is decisive in itself, one must recognize the difference between an end and a means. Most of morality, in fact, is concerned not about ends but about means. The end, moral as it may be in itself, does not justify the employment of an immoral means. Having a child is a good end, but surely achieving that end by means of kidnapping is morally distinguishable from becoming a parent by means of loving union with one’s spouse. Money may be a desirable end, but obtaining it through theft, blackmail, or extortion, as opposed to earning it justly, is the difference between immorality and morality. Virtually everyone in the history of moral philosophy recognizes the validity of this distinction. Contraception violates the order established in nature by God between intercourse and procreation."
Contraception and Catholic Teaching
Really? Maybe I should try that, eventually. (6 more months of pregnancy, plus 9-10 months after, before I need to worry about it.)
Do you have "Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition" by Marilyn Shannon? Very good information there.
All life is sacred.
Thanks for the response! On one level I understand all the spiritual references to which to you responded. But I'd rather go to practical application to see if you can somehow hit a nerve with me and my spiritual blockage on this subject. So let me pose this practical situation upon two couples.........Couple "A" practices NFP from the beginning of their marriage to the end of their fertile lives never having conceived, never having bore a child but having followed the letter of the law of the Catholic Faith to a "T." Couple "B" practices interrupted coitus during every single love making act. During the course of their lives they have 4 mistakes and bring each of these pregnancies to full term and birth. They raise the children happily ever after and those children go on to give them grandchildren. Which couple has done God's work?
Oh yes and also very pain free. There are others good stuff but I don't want to gross out the freeper men ;-)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0926412094/002-6652440-3666441?v=glance
Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition is on my wish list now.
**If you divert, block, or render infertile the sperm, you pervert the sexual act to exclude
(1) God, who is a partner in the procreative aspect of the marital act;
(2) Your spouse, who is no longer fully engaged in the unitive aspect of the marital act.**
BTTT!
Good analogy.
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