Reliance upon God's divine providence is not a burden -- quite the opposite -- it is a joy. Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII were clear and consistent in their teaching. I have already provided links to their 3 most relevant documents -- documents that were cited numerous times in Vatican II's "Gaudium et Spes," to cite just one significant magisterial example.
The links are there -- I encourage everyone to read them for themselves and then to decide for themselves. See what Pope Pius XI really said in Casti Connubii and what Pope Pius XII really said in his Allocution to Italian Midwives and his Address to Large Families.
http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=5370&longdesc
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P11CASTI.HTM
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P511029.HTM
I believe that everyone who takes the time to read these authoritative statements for themselves will discover a Catholic theology of marriage that is reasonable, consistent, liberating, joyful, and faithful to 2000 years of Christian teaching. Unfortunately, it's hard to see how any of those terms can be applied to the currently-popular cheese-paring approach to marriage.
For those, and perhaps this may include you Hermann, who say, "It would fulfill the deepest wishes of my heart if only I could accept children joyfully and gratefully from God in whatever number He chooses to send them, but alas it is impossible in this day and age," I urge you to attend a Traditional Catholic chapel where you are likely to meet many inspiring examples of families who are proving that it is not impossible. Our own chapel has literally dozens of families who have not limited their fruitfulness in any way, and who have been privileged to receive many blessings from God.
Rather than search for exceptions and excuses, they have wholeheartedly accepted the admonition of the Church:
Infuse into the spirit and heart of the mother and father the esteem, desire, joy, and the loving welcome of the newly born right from its first cry. The child, formed in the mother's womb, is a gift of God, Who entrusts its care to the parents.With what delicacy and charm does the Sacred Scripture show the gracious crown of children united around the father's table! Children are the recompense of the just, as sterility is very often the punishment for the sinner.
Hearken to the divine word expressed with the insuperable poetry of the Psalm: "Your wife, as a fruitful vine within your house, your children as olive shoots round about your table. Behold, thus is that man blessed, who fears the Lord!", while of the wicked it is written: "May his posterity be given over to destruction; may their name be blotted out in the next generation".
Having read all your post......you have hit on part of my problem which is - WHY must the Church have any approved Method for regulating births. Why doesn't the Church disapprove all methods? NFP and artificial birth control do accomplish the same ends, and yes people, I know all about the means, etc. The "means" by which a couple plays mad scientists and uses charts, temperatures, cycles, etc are, in my opinion, playing God too. They too have taken God out of the equation or they would have to do science experiments every month. The point is,,,,,why doesn't the Church condemn all forms of regulating births.
I know all about the full and final Authority of the Church, infallibility, etc, etc. I must reiterate.....I am trying to fully understand this NFP method from an intellectual standpoint. And Maximillian, I'm not addressing you so much,,,,,as those who are about to jump on me for my intellectual departure from Church teaching. I have prayed about this, I have tried so hard to put my mind around NFP and I can't do it. Yet, I'm called by the Church to trust in it's infallibilities.
As you have so eloguently put it Maximillian,.....those couples who neither use artificial birth control or NFP are the honorable couple before God Amighty and it is they who trust, without any human reservations, in His Divine Authority.
The burden is requiring people to do more under pain of sin than they are actually required to do, not the reliance on Providence.
I encourage everyone to read them for themselves and then to decide for themselves.
That is the Protestant way. Catholics allow the Church to teach them, they do not "decide of themselves" what a proclimation of the Church means. If approved moral theologians tell us that proclimation X is telling us to do Y, we accept that with docility. We don't judge it for ourselves.