A Gift and a Mission
For Maria and Xavier Martinez, learning Natural Family Planning was more than discovering a method. It changed the way they understood marriage, deepened their appreciation for each other, and opened their hearts to a mission they now share with other couples.
Maria and Xavier, who live in Minnesota and have two daughters, help with outreach to the Hispanic community, while working to bring NFP to more parishes near them. “NFP has been an intrinsic part of our marriage. In a way, it has saved our marriage,” says Maria.
Life Changing
Maria’s first meaningful encounter with NFP was via the Billings method, which they took a class in after getting married. She adds, “I was reluctant to learn the sympto-thermal method with CCL, because we were already using a method, and classes were in the middle of winter, about a 40-minute drive with a baby on board. But the class was mind-blowing. It wasn’t only the clarity the observation of the temperature gave us. More importantly for me, it was the introduction to theology of the body. It changed my life.”
Xavier says, “It aided in our communication and in Maria’s health. It changed my heart and the way I looked at sex. It also gave me a new appreciation of Maria’s body as God’s creation.” Their reaction to the class was, “Why has no one told us this before?”
The Martinez’s received the information as a gift but also a mission. They became a teaching couple to share it with others.
Additionally, Maria and Xavier are fertility coaches for CCL. “A coach is someone that will accompany you in the different stages of your fertility,” they describe. “We have couples that come back when they have a baby, we have couples approaching perimenopause — any time a woman has a different chart she can reach out to have help.”
For Xavier, promoting NFP alongside his wife has been profoundly meaningful. “I tell other men even though their wives might not say it out loud, their support is super important. This is teamwork, not only the woman’s responsibility. The husband is to be the head of the family, therefore it’s very important for us to learn how fertility works and what God intended when He created the marital embrace.”
Not Just a Method
“NFP is not only about using a method, but rather a way of life that encourages communication and mutual respect, to avoid using but truly loving,” they say. “In turn it brings us closer to God. An active spiritual life goes hand-in-hand with successfully practicing NFP.”
They have many beautiful memories from teaching, like the story of a young couple they taught who had been living together and already had one daughter. “In taking the class, they decided to live in separate rooms and treat each other as if they were engaged. He would sleep on the couch and kiss her good night at her bedroom door every night until they married, a moving testimony for us and their daughter.”
Reflecting on what she most enjoys about sharing NFP, Maria says it is “the hope it gives me that younger generations will make this a better world and bring themselves and others to heaven.”
For Xavier, that hope comes with a responsibility: “This is not something they will hear everywhere or often, but it’s the truth about how we have been created. It is our responsibility to give what once was given to us.”
Written by Savanna Duca. Original article can be found in Family Foundations magazine, a quarterly benefit to our benefactors and supporters.
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.