My point is that families come in all sizes. Some have one or two kids, some have 3, some have 5, some have 8 and some families have none. There is no magical special formula that says what a perfect family is. There is also no finite number imposed by the Church. People who are being called to have large families are doing so. People who have small families are being called to do so…
I think a major issue you are not understanding is that a majority of people contracept. I will submit to you that contraception is not God’s will for the size of families. I have read a few of your other posts. You have a ton! I understand that you are not married. So your worldview is probably different from mine. But your view as a Catholic should be the same.
But let me tell you a story from the front lines on this issue.
Our second child was born different. She became more and more different in the next few months. Something was wrong. She did not eat at all. I don’t mean she ate very little but rather we could only “force feed” maybe 2 oz a day. She vomited all the time. At She was born at 8 pounds and at 15 months weighed 14 pounds. In almost a year and a half she had not doubled her birth weight. She was starting to miss milestones and we tried everything, even to the point of feeding a 5 month old plain olive oil. Then our doctor told us we needed to surgically implant a feeding tube. We did. It was only slightly more effective but it kept her alive. We had alarms going off in her room, feeding tubes falling out and needing to be surgically put back in…etc. And we still did not know what was wrong. We had an entire genetic makeup done and found that she has a deletion in her 1q21 gene. The closest thing I can describe it as is Turner Syndrome. Since it was a genetic deletion both my wife and I were urged to get tested. I was positive and 1 in 4 of our children will have the deletion. The deletion can range from almost undetectable (me) to moderate (my daughter) to severe (debilitating deadly) And there is no way to know exactly what it will manifest itself as. Of course my wife and I prayed, discerned and communicated with each other and God our plans for the future. Would we have any more children? Would NFP be the extent of our marital embrace? Should we adopt future children? It is weird with something like this. You never hear about it and then once you are affected by it suddenly you see it everywhere. We were involved in support groups with children with this deletion. My wife and I came to the conclusion to only use NFP to space and that we would accept children lovingly from God. No matter what the child was. When our special needs child was 2 and a half we had our third child. As we juggled an infant and a special needs child things started to get easier, we found joy in the suffering.
Not to mention that my wife, herself, is a genetic scientist. We are quite aware of the science and advances in technology. We are quite educated in genetic diseases and the protocol used in identifying and, sadly, eradicating them from our world. Because too often eradicating them means contracepting, aborting or sterilizing. We have had family members, doctors and social workers tell us to sterilize, or contracept, using insidious emotional tactics such as “it isn’t fair to your other children” or “you might bring someone “less than perfect” into this world.” We are quite aware at how even doctors and people that label themselves as “pro life” are really not. We have been pushed toward things that are downright evil. We resist. We press on and we currently have 4 children. I’m sure, God willing with more to come.
Oh and here is something the doctors don’t tell you.
My daughter, the one with the deletion, is 100 percent normal. She is in first grade and you would never know anything was wrong at all. Just a “second belly button” where the tube was. I cannot describe it any other way but miraculous. It started slowly, and kept building, within a year she was completely normal. Seizures, gone. Eating. Quickly making up for lost time in development. By societal standards “perfect” Will another child of ours have it? maybe. Could it be even more sever? Sure. Could it end in death? yup.
Getting back to the OP. If we followed the thought process of the sister we never would have our “perfect” child. Nor would we have the 2 that came after. We would never have been sanctified educated and transformed by our family. We are quite well acquainted with the latest technology and science. We are knowledgeable about the subject even more than most given our science backgrounds. And we have seen firsthand how the knowledge and technology works against the greater good especially when the science and technology are being wielded by those who are a product of this world and not of God. They are taught, tainted and driven by the very parts of our society and culture you obviously do not see.
I see from a previous post on another thread that you have never been married. So these issues of sexuality within a marriage might not be something you have wrestled with yourself, but I can assure you that modern “knowledge” and technology have done exactly the opposite of what you tout. They have silenced God’s will for a great many people.
My wife and I have used ABC, NFP, Ladycomp etc…We used many forms of ABC earlier in our marriage and then ladycomp. Ah Ladycomp. That’s right, ladycomp. A computer that tells you when to have sex. It does not get any more “technological” than that! In all of that time. In all of those modern advances. The only time we really were preforming God’s will was when we let go of all of the crutches and power grabbers that those things can be and just let God speak to our hearts and our lives.
