Anniversaries and Gifts
An anniversary is the annual return of the date of a specific event, typically celebrating, remembering, or marking a significant milestone from a past year or years. Most commonly, anniversaries are celebrated for annual remembrances of wedding dates, dates where couples who love each other make commitments through covenants (not contracts) that they come to the Sacrament of Matrimony freely, give of each other totally, accept children willingly and stay faithful to each other forever. The “I wills and I dos” are then repeated each time a couple come together in marital intimacy.
Normally, gifts are given at anniversaries depending on relationships and connections. The gift of each to the other is the greatest gift each can give to the other. I begin here because although I am a retired NFP-only Ob/Gyn who taught and promoted NFP for over 20 years with my wife and served on the board of CCL, I was also an English major in college and words mean something. The above definition contains some key words that relate to NFP.
Education and Promotion of STM
Couple to Couple League was founded in 1971 in direct response to the Encyclical “Humanae Vitae” promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI which reaffirmed Catholic Church teaching on instruction on its prohibition against contraception and how natural fertility-based methods were acceptable and recommended. CCL’s founders (John and Sheila Kippley and Dr. Konald Prem) aimed to create an organization that provided education and promotion of a comprehensive “symptom-thermal” method which uses three main fertility markers: temperature, mucus, and cervical position. This particular method is extremely effective (up to 99% when used correctly) and CCL has expanded its reach to teach and support couples throughout the world by introduction of the Fertility Science Institute, 5 years later, is a trusted place where people can access reliable help and resources on all aspects of fertility while also encouraging respect of the dignity of the whole person.
NFP is not just a method of family planning, it is a lifestyle and a gift. It is a gift given to married couples who are celebrating on a regular basis through their mutual love and intimacy and relationships with each other and God the blessings of fertility. Celebrating respect for each other and their mutual decisions for responsible parenthood in accepting the invitation by the Holy Spirit to co-create new life. A life that will have an immortal souls created in the image and likeness of God that will exist for all eternity as part of God’s plan for salvation and HIS desire to marry US!
Anniversary
Now, a 55th “wedding” anniversary is known as the EMERALD ANNIVERSARY representing a rare and cherished milestone symbolizing true love, devotion, and wisdom. Emerald because it signifies a lasting, resilient partnership in comparison to the precious, deep-green gemstone that symbolizes eternity, harmony, and growth… all aspects of a truly loving and intimate relationship intended by God at His initial bringing together of the first man and woman so that they could be “fruitful and multiply.” This 55th anniversary is also associated with the orchid flower representing grace, beauty, and strength. Green is the dominant color representing growth and prosperity.
So, the “language” of the body through its very created theology (as in Pope St. JPII’s “Theology of the Body”) speaks not only of the celebration of love and life and babies and bonding, but also to the fulfillment of the very meaning of God’s creation and loving gift of the Sacrament of Matrimony. Theology of the Body is a catechesis on love, sexuality, and the human person, summarizing that the body makes invisible spiritual realities visible. It teaches that humanity is created for love, bodies are theological, and sexual union is a sacramental reflection of God’s internal communion of love. So, the body has a “nuptial meaning,” a meaning in which the love of the person becomes a gift through the communion of persons, originally seen in the “original unity” of man and woman. This marital union is where the two become one!
Communion
Where else in our physical world do the two become one? It is at the reception of the Eucharist (Holy Communion,) where the species of the transubstantiated bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ are internally consumed, digested, and absorbed into the blood stream going to every cell in the human body… truly a two becoming one! Communion is the intended purpose of our very existence which is why the Bible refers to Christ as the bridegroom and we as the bride (Eph.5:25). There is no matrimony in heaven, nor further reproduction, as we will be “married” and in communion with Christ for all eternity.
While reflecting on language, my personal preference is to use the word “matrimony” rather than “marriage” as the former is what the Catholic church uses to refer to the Sacrament, of which there are only seven. Sacraments are an outward signs to give grace; the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God which acts as a transformative power, allowing for forgiveness and righteousness that humans cannot earn for themselves. Grace is what all married couples need to continue with their covenantal vows made in the presence of witnesses and God, which once joined together should not be put asunder.
Blessed
As you see by the words in bold in this written offering in bold, we are truly blessed in having our God, His created reality, His gift of fertility, His creating our bodies to be complimentary as man and woman, His gift of fertile and infertile times, His gift of the Couple to Couple League and its adjunct teaching arm the Fertility Science Institute as the largest teaching organization of NFP throughout the world, all representing God’s plan for life and love and communion. So, happy anniversary CCL and staff and board and thanks for all you do in your unwavering support of God’s plan.
Why is NFP so important? Take the Natural Plan course for a quick intro. Learn Natural Family Planning – as an engaged couple or as a married couple.
Written by Dr Lester Ruppersberger, D.O., FACOOG. He is a retired Ob/Gyn, who, along with his wife, was an NFP instructor for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for nearly 20 years. Dr. Les, an NFP-only physician, has been the past president of the Catholic Medical Association, and works with Philadelphia-area crisis pregnancy centers. He serves as the Vice Chair of the CCL Board of Directors.