Natural Family Planning International

You, the individual person and couple, are at the heart of the effort to rebuild a culture of life and hope. God is calling you to accept the twin challenges of chastity and generosity in having children. You can learn how to practice chaste NFP from the online manual at this website—and available in print—or you can learn from local NFP providers. Then with thoughtful prayer, you can discern whether God is calling you to seek or to avoid pregnancy.

Do the right thing for the best reasons
       Even if you intend to let the babies come as they may, learn NFP because it’s part of God’s plan for families. Practice ecological breastfeeding because it’s part of God’s plan for baby-care and baby-spacing. Pray for a generous heart. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and the rest will be given unto you” (see Mt 6:33). Seek first to do things in your own life in accord with God’s plan. Do your best to share God’s plan with others. Then let God take care of the rest of the culture.

That’s the vision.
Please help make it a reality.

Want to apply the theology of the body to breastfeeding?  Read Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)  Now on sale until April 4, 2010 at $3.95.  Contact www.ignatius.com.

This organization shares the founders’ 40+ years of experience with using and teaching natural family planning and explaining morality in a way that ordinary people can understand. The content of our triple-strand approach to natural family planning is unique within the NFP movement.
       •Ecological breastfeeding provides a wonderful combination of health benefits for mother and baby, the emotional benefits of attachment parenting, and the natural spacing of babies. It is truly part of God’s plan for families. Only ecological breastfeeding with its frequent suckling provides a significant spacing of babies. Most couples can use ecological breastfeeding to space the births of their children and then use systematic NFP when they have a sufficiently serious reason for additional spacing or avoiding pregnancy.
       •The covenant theology of human sexuality provides an easy-to-grasp way to understand and internalize God’s plan for love, marriage and sexuality. The knowledge that the sex act ought to symbolize the commitment of marriage provides meaning and motivation to postpone the “marriage act” until marriage. The knowledge that within marriage it ought to be a renewal of the marriage covenant provides deep meaning to this expression of married love. It also provides a challenge to spouses to maintain an attitude of caring love and gratitude throughout every aspect of their life together.
       •The Kippley-Prem Method of systematic NFP provides couples with maximum freedom of choice and minimum abstinence.

Next Week: Your Place in This Vision

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)  Now on sale until April 4, 2010 at $3.95.  Contact www.ignatius.com.

A pipedream is a pleasant but impossible dream. A vision is an idea about what’s possible. It guides your plans and actions. Our vision is about what is eminently possible with a change of heart. It should be obvious, however, that our vision is not going to “just happen,” and here’s why.
       •There will be no freedom from the culture of death and fear without building a culture of life.
       •There will be no culture of life without a stop to legalized abortion. As Mother Teresa said at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, “I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” If a culture cannot tell people not to kill others who stand in their way, how can it expect people not to engage in the lesser crimes of assault, muggings, rape, robbery, dishonesty, fraud, and mutually voluntary sins such as adultery, fornication, sodomy, and dealing in drugs?
       •There will be no stopping abortion without a widespread acceptance of chastity.
       •There will be no widespread acceptance of chastity outside of marriage without a widespread acceptance of chastity within marriage.
       •There will be no acceptance of marital chastity without the rejection of unnatural forms of birth control, many of which can also cause early abortions.
       •There will be no widespread rejection of unnatural forms of birth control without the widespread knowledge and practice of natural family planning (NFP).
       •There will be no widespread practice of NFP without serious efforts to promote it and without sufficient NFP teachers and/or materials.
       •In many sub-cultures, that will happen only when the clergy require couples to learn NFP, including ecological breastfeeding, as a normal part of preparation for marriage.
       •In the fast growing computer-oriented subculture, the vast, vast majority of married couples—say at least 90% and probably 95%—can teach themselves how to practice chaste NFP from the online manual, free charts,  and other materials at this website.

The bottom line is that in order to roll back the culture of death that is built on the logic of unnatural birth control, it is necessary to promote, teach, and practice the natural ways that God has given us to space babies.

Next Week: The Role of NFP International

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius) Now on sale until April 4, 2010 at $3.95.  Contact www.ignatius.com.