You may find that NFP involves being open to an unexpencted plan of life.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is not Catholic birth control, a young couple from Tacoma, WA will be quick to tell you. Rather, it is a way of life involving prayer and discussion about making decisions for the future of your family.
Michael and Kristine, who have been married for three years, have a daughter, and their second child is on the way. Kristine learned about NFP while in college through the Theology of the Body.
“I truly believe NFP has been the greatest instrument of our success as a married couple,” she says in her blog. She explains that contraception separates the two meanings of the procreative act — unitive and procreative — and thus sex becomes disordered.
NFP, on the other hand, “simply teaches a man and a woman to develop a mindset of ordering their lives according to God’s Providence — discerning whether or not they are able financially, emotionally, or physically able to get pregnant each month.”
She also says, "A lot of us have found that being open to life is not just about having more kids, but rather to be open to the struggles it takes to become pregnant, to be open to the loss of children, and to be open to a plan completely different from our own."
The couple’s beliefs mirror that of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, who recently wrote, "For married couples, Natural Family Planning works! Yet, many married couples remain unaware that modern scientific methods of NFP enable them to space the birth of their children and, for sound reasons, limit the size of their families, in a way that is lovingly obedient to Jesus Christ and his Church, while avoiding the sin of contraception.”
For the complete pamphlet, read the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops’ PDF document, "Contraception:
Classes in the Sympto-Thermal Method of Natural Family Planning are offered by the Couple to Couple League (CCL) to married and engaged couples and can be taken at 15 locations in the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL and surrounding area, including southeast Milwaukee and northwest Indiana. A homestudy course is also available at CCL International. For the next series of classes, go to http://www.naturalfamilyplanningchicago.com.
Photo:
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