July 16, 2014 Meet the Bosleys: diocese’s new NFP teachers By Suzanne Pietropaoli For Matthew and Sarah Bosley of Westport, learning and using Natural Family Planning was such a positive experience that they wanted to share their knowledge with others. After completing nearly two years of intensive study in the teacher certification program with Northwest Family Services, they are currently working through their supervised practicum under the direction of the Diocesan NFP Office. That story begins at Hiram College in Ohio, where the couple met and where both earned bachelors’ degrees in education; they were engaged to be married shortly after graduation. Sarah relates, “We explored birth control options and none sounded appealing. NFP was intriguing, but we were concerned about reliability and the challenge of abstinence. Unable to find instructors in the area, I purchased the Couple to Couple League manual, read it cover to cover, and was hooked from that point forward.” Matt admits to being a bit hesitant at first: “I was skeptical that it would be effective as a way to avoid pregnancy, and the idea of regular periods of abstinence didn’t appeal to me that much. I figured that if I was getting married, I would not have to be abstinent any more. But I wasn’t enthusiastic about the other methods, either.” As part of their marriage preparation process, the Bosleys attended a couples’ retreat at a local parish that included instruction from a married couple. “Hearing about their experience with NFP was thought-provoking,” Matt recalls. “The idea of avoiding pregnancy without the use of barriers or chemicals was very attractive to me. By the time Sarah and I were married, I was much more open to using NFP, and my appreciation for it grew as we put it into practice.” Sarah found NFP to be a positive experience right from the start. “As a newlywed, I wanted to be absolutely certain that our relationship would not be purely physical. I wanted to have a healthy sexual relationship with my husband, and not have sex be the glue that held us together. By having periods of abstinence, we have never considered using sex as a reward or denying sex as a punishment to one another. I feel incredibly respected by my husband.” “Honestly,” Sarah continues, “I am surprised that women everywhere, especially feminists, have not latched onto this concept. NFP is fertility awareness. The woman closely monitors her body for the signs of fertility, then makes a conscious decision to avoid pregnancy or achieve pregnancy. It’s very liberating to have full control of my body and a true choice.” The couples’ practice of NFP got even better shortly after they moved from North Carolina to Westport in 2006. As Sarah explains, “Not long after we relocated, we learned that NFP classes were being offered in Plattsburgh. We decided to take the class since everything we knew at the time we had learned from a book. We thought it would be nice to have some reassurance we were using the method appropriately. This course used the Northwest Family Services program materials, and there were a few differences between that system and the one we had learned originally,” she said. “Best of all, we learned that we were being more conservative than we needed to be: the knowledge we gained actually lessened the time of abstinence for us!” “Our culture bombards us with the idea that sex equals love or that sex is the deepest kind of love, and neither is true,” he said. “Unlike birth control, NFP encourages both husband and wife to work together in taking an active, conscious decision to love each other each day. “Practicing abstinence to avoid pregnancy encourages us to think of other ways to love and care for one another and promotes a greater appreciation for sexual intimacy when we share it,” he said. “Natural Family Planning is a great way to love unconditionally because it says, ‘I love you and the fertility God gave you’.” Sarah, too, finds this way of life enriching. “NFP has greatly improved my relationship with my husband, and it has made us better parents,” she said. “The foundation of the Church is family and community. We’d love to see a ripple effect of other couples gaining what we have gained: not a perfect relationship, but a relationship built on a solid foundation of mutual love and respect for ourselves and for God.” This intersection of faith, love, and life led the couple to become NFP teachers themselves. “We saw a need,” says Sarah, “and felt it was an area we were both passionate about. I went through the Lay Ministry program, and its workshop on family life. Both Matt and I feel called to be of service to families.” “For a long time I have felt God calling us as a couple to minister to other couples, and teaching NFP seems like a great way to do that,” he said. “The teacher training course took a lot of time and effort, and we both struggled to fit it into our already busy lives. There were many quizzes and written assignments, and a lot of studying. Now I am looking forward to sharing all the benefits of NFP with other couples, especially those preparing for marriage. “This is a big part of what marriage as a vocation is all about, loving and serving Christ in one another—but also in his Church,” he said. The couple realizes the challenges they face. “Even among Catholic couples, NFP use is rare,” Matt explains, “because there are so many misconceptions about it: that it is the same as Rhythm, or that NFP means having no control over when you have children. In reality, NFP is one of the most effective methods of family planning.” “Many people feel the Church is uninformed in her view of contraception,” Sarah adds. “I would propose that people need the opportunity to experience the difference in order to see for themselves the goodness of NFP. “Please know the Church does not condemn those who choose contraception,” she said. “The Church says that contraception is harmful, and that there is a better way. We are not here to criticize or judge. Please consider taking the classes, even if it is just to learn more about the beauty of the human body and of human sexuality!”
Sarah and Matthew Bosley have completed their NFP teacher-training program with Northwest Family Services of Portland, OR. In conjunction with the Diocesan NFP Office, they recently taught their first series of NFP classes as part of a supervised practicum. The Bosleys, parishioners of St. Elizabeth's Church in Elizabethtown, look forward to sharing the good news of NFP in the eastern part of our diocese.
Celebrating God’s vision for marriage “Natural Family Planning: It’s worth it! Join the revolution!” is the theme of this year’s Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, a national educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to celebrate God’s vision for marriage and promote the methods of Natural Family Planning. Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for the safe, natural and effective methods of both achieving and avoiding pregnancy. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the woman’s signs of fertility and infertility. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, NFP methods “respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them and favor the education of an authentic freedom.” (CCC, no. 2370) The dates of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week are: July 20-26th, 2014. These dates highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love and responsible parenthood. The dates also mark the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother. The Diocesan NFP Office joins with the U.S. bishops in highlighting the benefits of NFP. As in the past, bulletin announcements and suggested intercessions for the Prayer of the Faithful have been made available on the pastoral documentation page of the diocesan website. This year the Diocesan NFP Office has also joined the Offices of PreCana, Evangelization, and Faith Formation to offer a workshop, Building Strong Families July 26 in Norfolk. In his NFP Awareness Week letter (see page 3). Bishop LaValley reminds us that, “This week provides us with an opportune moment to focus again on God’s will for our families…This vision that sees sexuality through the lens of faith reveals an authentic stewardship of God’s gifts of sex and love. .Natural Family Planning provides a married couple with a vision of family life where faith is renewed, hope is nurtured, and love is discovered anew.” Want to learn more about NFP ? See, www.rcdony.org/nfp, or visit the NFP section of the USCCB website at, http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/what-is-nfp/index.cfm. Don’t have time to attend an in-person class? Learn NFP in the comfort of your home by contacting one of the NFP providers listed at: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/nfp-home-study.cfm .The Catholic Church invites all the faithful to embrace God’s plan for married love. Learn more about these beautiful teachings which support the use of NFP in marriage at: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/catholic-teaching. Please join the diocesan NFP team to spread the word about God’s design for married love and the gift of life as well as the methods of NFP. Contact us to get involved! |
||||
|
|||||||||
