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Marriage Formation

 Natural Family Planning (class schedules)

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply ...” 
Genesis 1: 27-29

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2: 24

Video...IS THE PILL NECESSARY? NaPRO TECHNOLOGY

What does it mean to be married?  Often in our culture, marriage is viewed as nothing more than a temporary legal contract between two people. In fact, marriage is far more than that.  It is a lifelong union of love blessed by God.  It is a sacrament, an external sign of internal grace.

God made husbands and wives to give themselves as gifts to one another — gifts in which we offer our entire selves, all body and all soul, to our beloved.  It is through our sexuality that we are able to offer this gift in its totality and truly achieve the “one-flesh” union God desires for us to experience in marriage.

After all, God himself is a communion of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The love between the Father and the Son is not only perfect, but it is life-giving; from the Father and the Son proceeds a third person — the Holy Spirit. Men and women, made in the image and likeness of God, are called emulate this life-giving love by gifting themselves to one other and generously opening their hearts to the gift of children.

We are made to give love and to give life.

The Call to Generosity

Christ calls husbands and wives to be as generous as their means allow when deciding to have a child. Why is conceiving a child “generous?”  Because as a parent, you must often generously sacrifice your own desires and even needs to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of your child.  

In addition, bringing a child into the world gives the child the opportunity to experience the wonder and beauty of life itself.  For a child to experience the joys of family and friendship, to feel God’s comforting presence in prayer or witness his glory in the natural world, her mother and father must be willing to generously give of themselves to bring her into existence and nurture her on the way to adulthood.

But most importantly, choosing to bring a child into existence is generous because it gives the child the opportunity to love God and be loved by God forever.  Not even the most sublime happiness of our earthly lives can compare to the joy of being with the most interesting, powerful, generous, and loving person who has ever existed — forever!  As parents, generously opening our hearts to another child means we are giving that child the most amazing opportunity of all — the opportunity to go to heaven.

A family is nothing more than the process of love begetting more love, as we selflessly give of our time, talent, treasure, and heart for the good of our spouse and our children.

It’s true that raising children requires great sacrifice.  But so does anything that turns us into better people.  Children challenge their parents as no one else ever will to be selfless, loving, patient, kind, and generous.  They are God’s invitation to sanctification on earth.

The Call to Responsibility

But what if our circumstances make it necessary to postpone having another child?  This may happen, and the Church recognizes that we may face financial constraints, health issues, or obligations to family that necessitate being prudent about family planning temporarily and sometimes even indefinitely.

In fact, we are seriously obligated to consider the impact having another child will have on our health, marriage, or family when deciding whether to welcome a new life.
[See section # 10 in Pope Paul VI's Encyclical Letter, Humanae Vitae].

The good news is that our loving God has given us the means to exercise this prudence in a way that enables us to give our spouse the total gift of ourselves in the marital embrace and still respect His design for our life-giving fertility.  The tool God has given us to achieve this is called natural family planning. 

Please direct your questions and comments to the Diocesan NFP Coordinator, Karen D. Poehailos, M.D.