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Natural Family Planning
By Annie Vining MTh, President TOBET
Natural Family Planning was a reflection given to the singles group at the Dallas Cathedral on June 23, 2003.
© 2003
- Sex as God meant it to be: Why the Church teaches what it does
- Marriage: a vocation to holiness in which we become more like God through:
- gift of self according to the four F’s in which one images God
- sex is the creation and renewal of the marriage covenant
- sex is meant for the union of spouses and for creation of new life, just like in the Trinity
- Why NFP is better than Contraception:
- Example of ends/means: both must be good for an action to be good
- a good end: giving $100 to a group of nuns
- a good means: working diligently at your job to earn that money
- a good end + a good means = a good act
- BUT
- a good end: giving $100 to a group of nuns
- a bad means: killing a guy on the street to get his wallet
- a good end + a bad means = a bad act
- At a moral level: (make two columns on board)
- NPF is often called Catholic contraception because people often forget about this important distinction.
- +NFP ensures that sex/the union of the spouses (a good end) is carried out according to a good means, according to God’s plan for us to become holy by imaging Him through the four F’s.
- +God did not intend for us to have a baby every time we have sex, so he has built in times of infertility to the cycle so that the couple may frequently enjoy the blessing of one another without having too many children who they can’t take care of.
- +God is the “Lord and Giver of Life” not man. NFP respects God’s right to be the Lord of Life
- +NFP helps us to grow in the virtues of self control and trust in God to take care of us because during the fertile times, abstinence is required.
- +NFP respects the body of the woman and respects that God has made her body very wonderfully: psalm 139 “For I am marvelously made…”
- +NFP helps couples treat the awesome power of PROCREATION (explain) with the appropriate responsibility (i.e. like the power of a boss can be used responsibly to organize the people so that the work gets done, or he can abuse this power to ruin his co-workers’ lives.) God has given the couple the power to help him create a new immortal soul. This power is very grave and must be used with care, not recklessly as is done with contraception, since it is used by people who aren’t even married to have sex without the context of the family life needed for raising children.
- NFP can be used for a bad end (selfishness), but it is at least the good means.
- -Contraception, on the other hand, skews the image of God as the love of the four F’s. It makes sex (a good end) into a lie by using a bad means.
- -Contraception places the woman in the direct way of being used for the man’s pleasure (he does not have to respect her body but can expect her to mutilate herself so he can have pleasure). And when it fails, she is the one who is often pushed into killing her own child and suffering the painful effects of abortion.
- -Contraception makes people the slaves of their desire rather than the master of them through virtue. It lowers people to the level of animals who must do whatever their desires tell them rather than using free will and decision.
- -Contraception treats fertility like it is a disease rather than a gift from God and views children like a burden rather than a blessing: “Children are a blessing from the Lord.”
- On a simply practical level:
- -Contraception is abortifacient, bad for the uterus (ages 2 years for every year it is on contraception), and causes birth defects.
- +While NFP is just as effective as contraception, good for marriage, and healthy for your body because it can help you identify certain health problems you may have.
- The nuts and bolts of NFP: What exactly is NFP? you say.
- CAUTION: This is NOT to replace a full class on NFP, but only to give a general sketch to single people who would like to have a better awareness of fertility.
- The endocrinology of NFP:
- Fertility is the ability to conceive a child.
- Both the man and the woman must be fertile for the procreation of a child.
- The male part of the fertility is constant while the female part is cyclical (show on board).
- When seeking to avoid children, one abstains from sex during the fertile time. When seeking to conceive children, one engages in sex during the fertile time.
- The couple knows that they are fertile by knowing what the “signs of fertility” are in the woman since she is cyclical.
- The two major signs of fertility in woman:
- -Fertile mucus (explain different kinds of mucus and how mucus goes through the cycle); this tells you that you are fertile
- -Sustained temp increase of about 4/10 degree (explain how temps go throughout the cycle); this tells you that you are no longer fertile
- How to read these signs:
- -Husband’s job: take temp in morning at a consistent time and record them
- -Wife’s job: observe for the different kinds of mucus at every bathroom trip by stretching the mucus and feeling the quantity.
- How to interpret your findings:
- -There are several rules, but the beginners rule is that you are (note on board pic)
- infertile from the day your period starts to the first day of mucus starting
- fertile while there is mucus
- infertile again for the rest of the cycle when the temp stays up for 3 days and the mucus has begun to be less fertile for 4 days.
- There are some finer points for people who have crazy temperatures (they rely more on the mucus sign) and people who have crazy mucus (they rely on the temp sign more.) Also for those who have a life or death reason to avoid pregnancy there are some other interesting points like sperm life, but for our purposes this is a good summary.
Annie Vining can be contacted at avining@tobet.org
The Theology of the Body Evangelization Team can be reached at info@tobet.org
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