NFP Awareness

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In the homily at my own wedding, the priest shared an interesting statistic.  Of those couples who (1) pray together every day, (2) go to Church every Sunday, and (3) are open to life (i.e. don’t use contraceptives), 1 in 1200 will end up divorced.  That’s a 0.00083% divorce rate.  He referred to those 3 things as “marriage insurance.”  What’s significant about those 3 things: prayer, church attendance, and openness to life?  They are the vows the couple makes before God on their wedding day.  When I work with engaged couples I point out that we can count on God to keep His end of the bargain. If the couple is faithful to their end, nothing can break them apart.   NFP is 98-99% effective.  It is completely natural and simple to use. In fact, Bl. Mother Teresa and her sisters would teach it to the women of Calcutta, India. 

NFP is not just used to avoid pregnancy (when a serious reason exists), but can be very effectively used to achieve it as well. In fact, my wife and I knew of our pregnancy and the actual due date of our firstborn before the doctor did! We had charted and so knew we had conceived.  Using the information, we were able to compute our son’s due date.  When we later had our doctor visit and he confirmed the pregnancy, he also gave us the same date.  Another gentleman shares an account of knowing his wife was pregnant before even she did via NFP! 

Want more information?  The Couple to Couple League is among the best resources out there.  There website is:  www.ccli.org.  That was the group that trained my wife and me.  Another resource is from the University of Creighton www.creightonmodel.com Or send me an email and I can connect you with our newly trained parishioners!

                God bless you!

                Phil Lawson, MTS