Natural Family - what?

Many married women I've spoken have tried numerous birth control methods but have never heard of Natural Family Planning (NFP). If you're one of them and you're wondering why, here's one of the reasons:






These NFP vs Contraception videos are made by seminarians in the Saginaw diocese. I recommend watching the rest. 

Media also makes an appearance here:





Happy Viewing!

Encouraging the man in your life

Here is a good piece from a blog I just recently discovered, Betty Beguiles, on encouraging your husband:

• Compliment him on his strengths and achievements and acknowledge his victories. 
• Create a peaceful atmosphere within our home. Make it a place that he can lay down his burdens and rest easy.
• Pray for him. Reread The Power of a Praying Wife.
• Write him love letters. Make sure he knows how absolutely swoon-worthy I find him to be.

 Read the rest.

While obviously advice for married couples, there is no reason why marriage hopefuls can't learn from it. Many of the things listed could apply to couples who are yet to be married. Encouraging and supporting the man in your life does not begin at marriage. It is a habit you continue in your married life.

Let's bring back true femininity.

Such as what's shown in this great scene from the film, A Man Called Peter.



"I've never made a speech before..."  Now, isn't she just the sweetest lady? And with brains and eloquence to match. And I think a part of what makes her so appealing is her humility. She did not get up there in front of that rowdy, obnoxious crowd because she thinks she's so great, but because she knew what needed to be said and nobody was saying it. Her courage to face such a tough crowd was fueled by her passion and commitment to the truth, and by her strong, quiet faith.

As for her wonderful speech, this part really stands out:

[T]hrough the ages she was revered, protected and loved. Men wanted to think of her as different from themselves, better, made of finer, more delicate clay. It remained for the 20th century, the century of progress, to pull her down from her throne.

She wanted equality. For 1900 years, she had not been equal. She had been superior. To stand equally with men, naturally she had to step down. Now, being equal with men, she has won all their rights and privileges; the right to get drunk, the right to swear, the right to smoke, the right to work like a man, to think like a man, to act like a man. We’ve won all this, but ought we to feel so triumphant when men no longer feel as romantic about us as they did about our grandmothers; when we’ve lost something sweet and mysterious; something as hard to describe as the haunting, wistful fragrance of violets?

It's one thing to fight real injustices against women that was going on, but not all perceived injustices are real injustices. To think of the two as one and the same is a grave mistake that's been made and is still being made as we speak. We've gone from fighting real injustices to thinking every difference between men and women to be an injustice. We started with women fighting for the right to vote and ended up with women fighting for the right to be men. Somewhere along the line, feminism went completely off track and abandoned femininity. They no longer sought respect on their own terms, but sought to achieve status on men's terms. Women are no longer delicate, refined, and an eternal mystery to men. They are like men now. And yet, the very same women are surprised that they are not being treated as superior, when they have rejected all that had made them superior.

Something to think about.

"Twenty and Engaged"

She's 20 and several years younger than I am, but she gets it. Which is more than I can say for many people of both her age and mine. And perhaps many older people.

People got married because “it is not good for man to be alone.”

But now we think it’s better if man is alone. So we tell children to live for themselves as long as they can; to establish their careers before all else; to have self-satisfying flings, and date for the fun of it; and to hold off marriage as long as they can, because life ends on the wedding day. It’s no surprise that when they grow up and marry, they remain alone, with separate careers, separate bank accounts, separate bedrooms, separate friends, separate beliefs — separate hearts.

Read the rest.