Journey to the Truth (Natural Family Planning) [Open]

Catholic Exchange ^ | April 23, 2008 | Anna Pier Day (pen name)

[Salvation]

Journey to the Truth

May 23rd, 2008 by Anna Pier Day

I argued with the priest — the strong-willed one — who sat opposite me in the confessional. For every argument I presented, though, his response was the same: a calm, understanding, but firm, “There are no exceptions to the Church’s teaching against contraception.”

Truth be told, if the Church had been less wise and had made exceptions, our family situation might have qualified as one. A few months earlier, after the birth of our youngest son, I had suffered from an acute depression with accompanying suicidal thoughts and a brief psychotic episode that had landed me in two different mental hospitals. I had been torn away from my life as the stay-home mother of a toddler and a still-nursing infant for the two weeks of hospitalization my treatment required, and the whole experience had been devastating — not only for me, but also for my family and everyone who cared about us. As a result, my husband and I were very afraid of the possible ramifications of another bout of post-partum hormone fluctuations. And, having recently returned to the Church after a 20-year absence, I was finding her teaching against contraception very difficult to accept.

But there was something about the way this priest calmly stood his ground (even when I told him for the twenty-third time why my family should be exempt from this particular teaching) that made me believe he was giving me the Truth. So, after a few more weeks, my husband and I discussed natural family planning, and we (somewhat fearfully) agreed to try it.

Our priest helped us again by putting me in touch with a nearby couple who taught the Creighton method of NFP. Soon after I began NFP classes, my husband and I did away with the contraceptives we had been using. As soon as we did, an amazing thing happened. It was as if God lifted the scales from my eyes, and instantly, I understood. I suddenly saw the pain a “contraceptive mindset” must cause our Loving Father, who cares for us and would never let anything happen to us that was not for our good. I saw what a great privilege He gives us by letting us share with Him in creating His greatest miracle — a new baby’s life. And I saw contraception for what it is — something we do to thwart God’s loving plan for our families.

Since then, our family has experienced God’s love more fully. He has blessed us with our first daughter, who was conceived when our Creighton chart said conception was possible. Our daughter brings great joy and love to our family, and the happiness she brings us far outweighs the pain of the (relatively minor) symptoms I experienced during pregnancy and shortly after her birth. I shudder now to think that we might have missed out on the privilege of raising her — and a lifetime of joy with her — just because of the weakness of our faith that God would take care of us. And I pray every day for a world full of priests who will stand firm on Church teaching, just like the one who first told us the Truth.

God Our Father, please send us holy priests…all for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus…all for the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary…in union with Saint Joseph. Amen.

 

Anna Pier Day (who used a pen name for this article) lives with her husband and three children in North Central Florida. She has been a teacher and now enjoys being a full-time mother and an author. Her first picture book for children is tentatively scheduled for release in May 2009.

[Salvation]

For your information and discussion.

[huldah1776]

What a beautiful, Spirit-filled post. Thank you.

[Salvation]

Yes, it is.

[Salvation]

Journey to the Truth (Natural Family Planning) [Open]

Enslaving Women One Pill at a Time (Birth Control Pills and Natural Family Planning)

New Study Shows Natural Family Planning Technique More “Effective” Than Contraception

Fargo) Diocese set to require pre-marriage course in natural family planning

Making Babies: A Very Different Look at Natural Family Planning

Clerical Contraception (Important Read! By Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer)

(Fargo) Diocese set to require pre-marriage course in natural family planning

Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, July 25, 2004

IS NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING A 'HERESY'? (Trads, please take note)

Thanks Doc: More (and Younger) Doctors Support Natural Family Planning

Couple say Natural Family Planning strengthens marriage

Reflections: Natural family planning vs sexism

British Medical Journal: Natural Family Planning= Effective Birth Control Supported by Catholic Chrch

Natural Family Planning

[Salvation]

Catholic Discussion Ping!

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[Sun]

NFP should NOT be confused with the rhythm method.

Sean Hannity once seemed to confuse the two, so I contacted his producer, who said he would pass it on to Sean.

btw, I have heard that some secular women also use NFP, because it is natural and safe (no blood clots, etc.).

[PresbyRev]

So contraception to prevent pregnancy thwarts God’s will, but trying to thwart pregnancy via the avoidance of sex when a woman might become pregnant is alright.

Isn’t God more powerful than a thin latex barrier? As those opposed to condoms or birth control pills assert when counseling against sex outside marriage - birth control isn’t 100% effective - so isn’t there enough wiggle room for God to get around barriers humans might throw in her way? - whether condoms, rhythm method or pill? The intent is the same - avoid pregnancy; it is only the method that differs - mere hair splitting.

Clerics argued against anesthia for women during childbirth when it was first utilized to that end as avoiding the full penalty of woman’s ‘curse’ - and avoiding “God’s will.” This article expresses the same mentality. If God’s purposes are worked out in spite of a condom at the outset or a life support system at the end - God’s will will be accomplished in traditional theology.

More power to them I suppose.

[Mad Dawg]

Alleluia

And nice to see you as ornery as ever, Salvation. Do you creak when you walk? ;-)

[Salvation]

Good for you for getting the truth to Hannity!

[Salvation]

** Do you creak when you walk? ;-)**

Not quite. But I sure noticed the change in that hip joint a little differently when it went from very hot to a rainy day here. LOL!

[Salvation]

No barrier. No pills. No thwarting God’s will here.

Just abstinence until fertile times and the couple wishes to conceive.

Please read some of the other links for more explanation about Natural Family Planning.

[Malacoda]

We used NFP very successfully, and have three wonderful blessings. You'd be amazed at the technology out there to help support NFP!

I can't say enough about a computer program (of all things) called Ovusoft. I've recommended it to all my girlfriends who use NFP, and it's a Godsend.

[To Hell With Poverty]

It isn’t just a matter of God wanting more babies. Unlike condoms or the pill, abstinence doesn’t turn a sacrament between a husband and wife, meant to create life, into a self-serving recreational act.

[Salvation]

A big bump for the two of you.

[PresbyRev]

By your reasoning, a couple incapable of conceiving a child should not have sex? Post-menopausal women, those with infertility issues, etc. have sex for a number of reasons - conceiving a child is not one of them. I suppose you might call it recreational sex. Self-serving? Why? It involves mutuality, love, concern for the other - all certainly sacramental, if by sacramental you intend a means of experiencing grace.

[Philo-Junius]

Um, no.

Sterility is not usually willed, and otherwise healthy, moral people who are sterile would be overjoyed if they conceived despite their apparent sterility.

Mutuality, love and concern for others which has been closed off to sharing those gifts with a third party are not fully healthy.

[To Hell With Poverty]

All good points, but the people you cite aren't making that separation (sex from procreation) themselves.

Besides, by your own reasoning God can overcome those situations, too. Like the couples who give up trying to conceive, adopt, then shortly thereafter become pregnant. ;)

[PresbyRev]

Your postulate that a third party must exist in a relationship of mutuality and care to be healthy is completely arbitrary and a non sequitor.

You view, then, as unhealthy, sex between a married couple who cannot conceive a child whatever the reason might be? Aristotle was liable to err you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8

[PresbyRev]

Pope Pius XI in Casti Connubii wrote:

“Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, ... in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, ... proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offense against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin. “

Wouldn’t the folk who practice the rhythm method or attempt to determine in any way when the woman would not be fertile be an attempt to have sex without pregnancy as a potential result?

More power, as I say, to the couples who wish to only have intercourse with the view to welcome any resulting pregnancy and abstain otherwise. I find the castigation of responsible family planning to be odd and one result is abortion.

For the good folk practicing the rhythm method, it would surely seem they run afoul of the spirit, if not the letter, of Pius XI’s promulgation above. That’s just an outsider’s view.

[Philo-Junius]

Opposition to the occasion (regardless of how likely that occasion is) of a third party is a form of selfishness, which represents an imperfection in the love and self-giving of the act.