Archive for the ‘Theology’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Teaching the Tradition Against Unnatural Birth Control

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

The primary responsibility for convincing people not to use unnatural methods of birth control falls on the bishops and their priests.  The Nicene Creed is professed on 52 Sundays and a few other major feast days every year.  That provides priests with 52+ occasions on which to preach the acceptance of Catholic teaching on love and sex, as well as every other matter.  The same Holy Spirit who guided the bishops at Nicea guided the Tradition against contraceptive behaviors, guided the affirmation of Pius XI in Casti Connubii in 1930, guided the affirmation of Paul VI in 1968, and continues to guide the Church today.  Theology and science can uphold and explain the teaching, but only the well founded belief in the Spirit-led Magisterium provides the certainty required for action.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant

Posted in Abortion-Contraception, Morality, Theology | Comments Off on Teaching the Tradition Against Unnatural Birth Control

Eco-Breastfeeding and Theology of the Body

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

A mother writes:  I read Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood about a year ago and it brought so much peace as it reaffirmed my beliefs about the importance of this bond. Lately I have been trying to research my vocation as wife and mother so that I can cooperate fully with God in my vocation.
I have been saddened by books by good Catholic authors, but they seem to be folks who have children sleeping through the night soon after birth, a modern common parenting theme. This seemed to influence their parenting advice which I didn’t feel fully comfortable with. In my continued research regarding my vocation I was excited to come across works on Theology of the Body and felt this should also be explored with regards to breastfeeding.
I began to read some articles on this theology and ran across a stumbling block that caused me to research more. But after tears and frantic research, I pulled out Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood again and here Sheila so eloquently put into words all that God had led my heart to in my search to resolve this issue. And it seems to boil down to this: that an interpretation of the Theology of the Body which is not applied to Ecological Breastfeeding is certainly incomplete.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood

Posted in Ecological Breastfeeding, Theology of the Body | Comments Off on Eco-Breastfeeding and Theology of the Body

Theology of the Body and Breastfeeding

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

The Theology of the Body is most often applied to the relationship between man and woman, but it also applies in a special way to the nursing relationship between a mother and her baby.  Through the act of breastfeeding, a mother gives of her very self to her baby, giving not only food but love and comfort as well.  This giving relationship reflects the donative meaning of the body.  Our bodies make sense only in light of giving them and using them for others.  And a nursing mother constantly gives her body — her arms, her breasts, her eyes — to her baby.  She is rewarded when her baby begins to smile at her, caress her, and even kick with joy as she prepares to nurse him or her….
           The delicate interplay of nutrition, love, and comfort involved when a mother nurses her baby can also provide the benefit of natural postpartum infertility.  There is a form of Natural Family Planning called Ecological Breastfeeding, or eco-breastfeeding.  Eco-breastfeeding is, in fact, the original form of NFP, which often kept the birth interval at 3-5 years in primitive societies. 

Maureen Armendariz
NFPI Teacher with her husband
Wichita KS
Full article was published in Catholic Advance, August 6, 2010.  The above is taken from part of the article.

Posted in Ecological Breastfeeding, NFP, Theology of the Body | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »