Planting Seeds With NFP
I suppose that I’ve lived long enough to begin to recognize the beauty of God’s plan unfolding in this world. In the late 1990s, I watched Catholic young adult groups like the Frassati Society become fertile soil where vocations took root—growing into priests, religious sisters, and holy married couples years later.
I’ve watched as those seeds planted then become a forest. Those vocations formed are now planting seeds of their own with younger generations. It seems that for those who have eyes to see, there lies just a glimpse of the beatific vision. In many ways this must be what our Lord Jesus had in mind when he gave the great commission, exhorting us to spread the good news.
A Legacy
Recently, I found out that Jenny Norton, the wife of the CCL Teaching Couple who taught my husband and me NFP 26 years ago, passed away in 2022. In Jenny’s 67 years, she created a legacy which includes her 48-year marriage to Dave, 9 children, 40 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren. Everyone who met Jenny knew of her love and devotion to her faith and her family, and her involvement with CCL as well as other organizations. It is clear that Jenny took our Lord’s call to become a missionary disciple seriously.
Initially Jenny and I would occasionally see each other at church functions, but time and relocation brought about distance. Yet it never managed to lessen the appreciation I had for all that Jenny and Dave shared with us.
You see, Jenny spent her life planting seeds, and I’m very familiar with those seeds bearing fruit. One of those seeds flourished my life.
A Question, A Seed Planted
All those years ago, at the conclusion of our NFP classes, the Nortons stopped my husband and me. They said, “Have you ever thought about teaching NFP?”
I clearly remember how we responded—with significant bewilderment and a dose of doubt. “What? Us? We haven’t even used NFP ‘for real’ yet! How would we ever be able to teach?”
But that seed was planted. And after nearly 20 years of teaching natural family planning, my husband and I have been blessed beyond measure. Working with couples over the years has become a source of life and joy for us. We are even seeing the fruits of seeds planted years ago spreading. We are beginning to teach the adult children of some of our previous students.
A poem by St. Teresa of Avila comes to mind, which in part reads:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
A Radical Response
The reality is that if Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, who suffered, died, and rose from the dead for our redemption-if we are loved with this radical love-then that love demands a response. We find that response in the final words of Matthew’s Gospel. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” God calls us to love Him in return by sharing this Good News to the ends of the earth. We are to become His hands, His feet in this world. No other response will suffice.
Humanae Vitae
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the name of the Couple to Couple League? The inspiration came from Pope Paul VI, from Humane Vitae, where he writes:
Among the fruits that ripen if the law of God be resolutely obeyed, the most precious is certainly this, that married couples themselves will often desire to communicate their own experience to others. Thus, it comes about that in the fullness of the lay vocation will be included a novel and outstanding form of the apostolate by which, like ministering to like, married couples themselves by the leadership they offer will become apostles to other married couples.
There is a powerful witness that comes from sharing the gift, the sacrifice, the beauty, and the challenges of using natural family planning with other couples. Our culture has deeply wounded and distorted the meaning of sexuality, marriage, and family—making our witness more urgently needed than ever. Have you spent time discerning how God is calling you to spread the Good News? How are you going to become God’s hands in this world? God’s feet? As Christians we all need to respond to God’s love in our lives with a total gift of self, much like Jenny Norton did. Let this be the seed you need to become more involved in sharing the gift of NFP to others. Sharing it one couple at a time.
Written by Susan Hoefer. Susan, married for 25 years, is the mother of four children. She has been a CCL teacher with her husband for many years. Susan has been working in the Diocese of Lafeyette-in-Indiana for over 15 years.