Marriage and being "open to life"

[Rico_S]

Well John could get a night off on a Wednesday sometimes.

John did that more than once to us, actually! That John is a wiley one

 

[BiologyBrain]

So I ask again, why can I not practice NFP to avoid conception from the start of our marriage without serious reason?

The Church doesn’t permit NFP to be used w/o a just/serious reason PERIOD. That’s partly the answer. Another part of the answer is that part of marriage is openness to creating new life. If you go into marriage intending never to have children (for un-just/non-serious reasons) your marriage is not technically valid (or at least it could be annulled rather easily based on this fact).

There have been several instances of quotes from the Catechism indicating that marriage is to be ordered toward procreation (I think they’re on the thread titled “Immediately Open to Life”). That doesn’t necessarily mean that all marriages produce children. However, it does mean that married couples are called to attempt conception within their marriage. It is actually part of the vows - a promise to be open to children. If you go into the marriage w/o just/serious reason intending to avoid children, you are not fufilling your vows.

 

[FrenchGwen]

In Contraception: Why Not? Janet Smith offers a similar analogy:NFP couples respect the fertile period as if they’re on sacred ground. You don’t walk there unless you’re prepared for the consequences.

:thumbsup:That’s a very, very beautiful sentence, thanks for sharing this !
The more I let this sentence sink in me, the better I can see how it wonderfully expresses the truth of NFP: infertile time is there to bond with your husband / wife, knowing that God designed it for that aim, fertile time is… something special, where you go shivering and knowing you may be about to let God repeat the miracle of life.

 

[BiologyBrain]

:thumbsup:That’s a very, very beautiful sentence, thanks for sharing this !
The more I let this sentence sink in me, the better I can see how it wonderfully expresses the truth of NFP: infertile time is there to bond with your husband / wife, knowing that God designed it for that aim, fertile time is… something special, where you go shivering and knowing you may be about to let God repeat the miracle of life.

I really like your analysis of that sentence! Very beautiful & descriptive of the true nature of NFP & marital relations!

 

[pumpkinbeast]

And NFP doesn’t say no to God. You see, NFP respects a woman’s fertility, has no bad social consequences (in fact wonderful ones – there’s almost a non-existent divorce rate among couples using Natural Family Planning) and NFP doesn’t say no to God because God has said, “I want to be there at the fertile time. I made the fertile time for bringing forth new human life. If you engage in the sexual act, I want My option of making new human life. But I gave you a half of a month, three quarters of a month, where you’re infertile and if you want to pursue the bonding power of the sexual act without babies, do it then. I’m asleep. I’m out of town. I don’t expect to be invited at that time. I’m not around. You can’t even make me come. I won’t come. I can’t. I made your body in a certain way.” There’s no saying no to God. NFP couples respect the fertile period as if they’re on sacred ground. You don’t walk there unless you’re prepared for the consequences.

I LOVE THIS. I’m going to save it in a file somewhere, and read it every month or something. Beautiful! ^^