[Salvation]

I found this article interesting. Especially the part about couples who find it difficult to conceive often do better with Natural Family Planning.

Alternative View.

Comments out there, anyone?

[drstevej]

***The intimacy may be a result of the candor and teamwork the method requires. Each morning, Rafael finds a special (basal-body) thermometer and puts it in the mouth of his sleepy wife. He then reads her temperature and logs the numbers on a chart. Combining that with Rosemary’s close attention to monthly developments in cervical mucus and the feel of the cervix itself, the couple now has a way to gauge fertility. They then make decisions about sexual activity based upon this knowledge.***

This isn't my idea of intimacy. Nor that of my wife. I wouldn't suggest ramming a thermometer into her mouth when she's sleepy!

[Antoninus]

On top of that, couples say, NFP enhances marriage.

Not surprising. My wife and I use NFP and it's worked wonderfully so far. Then again, we actually WANT to have babies....

[Desdemona]

Not married myself, but there have been studies out confirming this for decades. See the Billings methods.

I know there was a lay study done after Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI. Lay people were really ticked off about this and discovered after a long study examining that he was right. The intimacy is better; side effets are nil; and it is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE. Like 99.7% or something. And I can tell you from personal experience, abstinence before marriage works like a charm.

[yendu bwam]

For Rafael, the times when he and Rosemary were intentionally trying to conceive rate as a pinnacle experience not only of the body, but of the spirit. “You know the moment when you are creating life,” he says. “It is not a surprise after some passionate moment. It is such a spiritual experience. It is amazing.”

I have never felt closer to God than when my wife and I combined to bring forth new human life on this Earth.

[yendu bwam]

“The pope is saying we can’t use people for our own sexual gratification,” Wonacott says. “Our culture is full of self-absorbed sexuality. The pope wants to flip that on its head and teach that the body is a gift for the other, a donation of the self. You give yourself away in love. . . . People are not to be used as a means to an end.”

Using people for sexual gratification is a form a selfishness - at odds with a religion (Christianity) that is based on selflessness.

[yendu bwam]

“Despite often-stereotypical understanding of Catholic teaching about sex in the popular culture, when examined for what it is, Catholic teaching about sex is something quite positive and beautiful,” Wonacott says.

Over the years, my wife and I have come to see the truth and beauty and holiness in the Catholic Church's (and the Pope's) authentic Christian teaching on sexuality. Now if we could just get the priesthood on board...

[nickcarraway]

bump