Modern Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods were developed during the 1960s in the midst of the sexual revolution. Although NFP brought a new understanding of love, sexuality, gender roles, fertility appreciation, openness to life and intimacy, it did not have a language to articulate these benefits to the culture. Dr. Mary Shivanandan says St. John Paul II’s landmark work on the Theology of the Body (TOB) provides a new voice and a new language for Natural Family Planning. In her article Natural Family Planning and the Theology of the Body: A New Discourse for Married Couples[1] she explains how TOB gives NFP a voice to communicate the beauty and richness of the Church’s teachings on marriage and family life to a contracepting culture.

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Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, a Pastoral Letter by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. USCCB: Washington, D.C., 2009. 58 pages. ISBN: 978-1-60137-092-1. Reviewed by Dennis & Rose Wingfield, June 5, 2016.

To assist in our ministry to married couples, we were looking for a succinct and clear book which would help couples understand the beauty, goodness and truth of God’s plan for marriage. The Pastoral Letter issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, aptly addresses this need.

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This weekend in the United States we honor those individuals who have given their lives in the defense of freedom around the world. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was first observed on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. This was in the aftermath of the Civil War when our nation was divided by the issue of slavery and many thousands had lost their lives fighting for what they believed. It has taken a long time for our nation to heal from this devastating division and massive loss of life. Memorial Day is not about division but reconciliation, coming together as a nation to honor those who gave their all for our country.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. (Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1865)

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Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Our favorite icon of the Trinity, written by Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev (1360s-1427), depicts the three angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (see Gn 18:1-15), a type of the Holy Trinity. Rublev’s icon, Trinity, is shown below.

Rublev’s Trinity^[1]

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When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit… Acts 2:1-4

Today the Church celebrates the close of the Easter season with the Feast of Pentecost. We commemorate Christ sending the Holy Spirit on His Apostles as He promised before His Ascension into heaven (see Acts 1:1-4). The Holy Spirit is difficult to comprehend; we cannot see him or hear him. Our limited language cannot fully explain the meaning of the Spirit. The images of fire, wind or a dove are commonly used to describe the Spirit in Scripture.

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In honor of mothers on this Mother’s Day, I would like to share some words of St. John Paul II from his “Letter to Women”:

I would now like to speak directly to every woman…This “dialogue” really needs to begin with a word of thanks…the Church “desires to give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the ‘mystery of woman’ and for every woman-for all that constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the ‘great works of God’, which throughout human history have been accomplished in and through her” (Mulieris Dignitatem, 31).

This word of thanks to the Lord for his mysterious plan regarding the vocation and mission of women in the world is at the same time a concrete and direct word of thanks to women, to every woman, for all that they represent in the life of humanity.

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12 tips on strengthening your marriage from Romans 12:

1. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Romans 12:9

At the end of the first five days in the creation account, Scripture reports, “And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25). However after creating Adam and Eve and giving them to each other in marriage, Scripture tells us, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31 emphasis added). In Malachi, God says, “I hate divorce” (Mal 2:16). God hates divorce and says marriage is very good. Paul exhorted the early Christians in Rome to “hate what is evil” and to “cling to what is good.” Be like the heavenly Father in hating divorce and clinging to your marriage, which is very good.

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Christopher West is a world renowned teacher of John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” – a bold, biblical vision of love and sexuality. As Founder and President of The Cor Project (“cor” is Latin for heart), Christopher leads an international outreach devoted to disseminating this liberating teaching and empowering others to live and share it.

In 2004 Christopher co-founded the Theology of the Body Institute which spreads the life-giving message of Theology of the Body through graduate level courses, on-site speaker programs and clergy enrichment training. The Theology of the Body Institute seeks to penetrate and permeate the culture with a vision of true sexuality that appeals to the deepest yearnings of the human heart for love and union.

With permission, we share one of Christopher’s recent blog posts on Pope Francis’ encyclical, Amoris Laetitia.

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Last week, we discussed Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, a beautiful and thought-provoking meditation on the state of the family and marriage in the modern world. Chapter 8, “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness,” has been the most discussed (and controversial) section of this exhortation. In it, the Pope discusses appropriate pastoral approaches to those who are divorced and remarried. It must be noted that this chapter does not change long-held Church teaching on the permanence of marriage but is meant to assist pastors and lay ministers in accompanying those in irregular marriages back into full communion with the Church.

Sadly, nowhere does this exhortation mention the faithful husbands and wives who are the innocent victims of divorce. Many spouses, although civilly divorced, honor their marriage vows until “death separates” (cf. Rom 7:2-3). These spouses are not interested in pursuing annulments; they pray that God in His mercy will heal their broken relationships.

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