All-In for Shared Mission
When John and Mary Jo Thayer first spotted an NFP class announcement in a parish bulletin, they had no idea it would lead to decades of service, a shared mission, and even John’s eventual conversion. Their story begins with a quiet openness to God that transformed their marriage from the inside out.
Mary Jo was a practicing Catholic, and learned NFP with John after seeing classes advertised in her Church bulletin. John had seen how the early ‘70s oil embargo affected family members who worked for General Motors, and this led him to learn about alternative energy, organic gardening, and health. These interests fit right in with embracing NFP. “[I] wanted to live that natural, healthy life… So, it was easy to buy-in from that perspective,” he says.
The two quickly found NFP helped connect physical intimacy to emotional and spiritual intimacy in their marriage. “I’m blessed to have married a great communicator who loved me to such a degree to accept the faith, to accept this. He was just all – in and never wavered,” Mary Jo describes.
John and Mary Jo became a promoter couple for CCL in 1987. Then, in 1994, John became Catholic. He remembers feeling slightly anxious telling his parents, who had raised him Lutheran. “When I did tell them, my mom was like, ‘That’s awesome,’” he says. “And my dad’s like, ‘About time.’”
Shared Mission
The shared mission of CCL has been a huge part of the Thayer’s forty years of marriage, from their involvement in a Michigan chapter to attending CCL conventions to Mary Jo becoming an author and writing novels with NFP themes. Additionally, they’ve chosen CCL as one of their main charitable contributions. “The marriage life presented seemed sacrificial and holy but also so rich and complete. I just fell in love with the whole CCL thing,” Mary Jo says.
“Another connection of why we chose it as a charity is, as we looked at society, we wanted to be part of things that address the root issues, not the patching of some symptom,” John says. “Having babies and making life decisions is much closer to bringing people to a view of the world that’s bigger than themselves, and that’s such a battle in society.”
They urge others to consider involvement in CCL, saying it’s one of the best ways to forge friendships with others striving for holiness. “You gain more fortitude when you know there’s a lot of other people marching on your same path,” they say. Mary Jo adds, “If people with a nudging don’t answer their conscience and follow the Holy Spirit, who’s going to?”
Together, John and Mary Jo show that saying ‘yes’ to God’s promptings can provide a shared mission, shape a marriage and help build a culture of authentic love.
Written by Savanna Duca. This article first appeared in Family Foundations magazine, a benefit for donors to the Couple to Couple League. For engaged couples, find CCL’s NFP for Marriage Prep here. Find CCL’s PeakDay STMethod for married couples here.