Alphonsus Liguori united two purposes of marital act
Many of us know that the teachings of the Church on marital love are founded on the inseparable connection between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning (HV #12). Less well-known is that it took centuries and the teaching of several doctors of the Church for this foundational…
Read MoreMore than just a fertility awareness method
I love that the Couple to Couple League (CCL) has never just taught the Sympto-Thermal Method. Why? Because to practice a fertility awareness method of family planning successfully, you need more than head knowledge. CCL has always been structured to provide whatever couples need live out the call to marital love as God designed. And…
Read MoreMore evidence that periodic abstinence is good for marriage relationship
New research confirms that despite the challenge of periodic abstinence, the use of natural family planning can be beneficial for marital relationships. The study, “Natural Family Planning and Marital Chastity: The Effects of Periodic Abstinence on Marital Relationships” (Linacre Quarterly, June 12, 2020) by Richard J. Fehring, PhD, RN, and Michael D. Manhart, PhD, found…
Read MoreLearning NFP? Start with Sympto-Thermal
OK, you’ve been hearing about fertility awareness-based methods. You like that they are safe and healthy. But how do you know which method to learn? You could search online to find advice or surveys that help match a method to your personality, lifestyle or needs. There’s good logic behind that. But I recommend everyone start…
Read MoreGrowing in devotion to St. Joseph as my spiritual father
As I help prepare for our family’s Father’s Day celebration this weekend, my thoughts happily keep turning to the foster father of Jesus, thanks to recently working on a Consecration to St. Joseph. I must admit my sorrow at neglecting a deeper relationship with him before now. As a woman, I pretty much relegated St.…
Read MoreWe have lost a treasure
Anyone who has followed CCL for any amount of time is likely familiar with our best-selling book, Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition by Marilyn Shannon. The 5th edition was just released a few months, and was a complete re-write (not just an update) with as much solid, new information on the connection between nutrition and fertility…
Read MoreExtraordinary event brings first-class TOB experts to you
The week before Easter I was watching TOB speaker Christopher West doing a live Facebook event on finding peace in the midst of the Coronavirus craziness. In truly an aside, he remarked in passing that he was stressed as well, given that all of the TOB Institute’s live events had come to a screeching halt,…
Read MoreEucharistic Abstinence and NFP
Guest post by Theology of the Body enthusiast Katrina J. Zeno, MTS This also appears in the May/June 2020 issue of Family Foundations. A funny thing happened on the way to Easter this year – Lent became even more penitential. Without our consent, public Catholic masses were suspended in many dioceses in the U.S. and…
Read MoreCCL teachers rise to the Covid-19 challenge
When things started getting serious with social distancing, CCL teaching couples with onsite classes all of a sudden found their meeting places closed down. With close to 70 percent of our instruction already happening via online classes, thank goodness we were certainly a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to social distancing and…
Read MoreHelp makes the difference
It can seem like a cruel joke that God has designed women to go through premenopause at around the same time of their lives that they begin to feel their bodies aging, they may have mid-life tension related to finances or career situations, they likely are parenting teenagers, and may also be caring for aging…
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