Turlock Celebrates Love & Life

I have been a member of CANFP for several years now. My parish, All Saints, has been a parish sponsor for a couple years now, too. I have enjoyed the CANFP magazine and its articles over the years and began to wonder, “How could CANFP help my parish?” So, I reached out, and began emailing and talking to Sheila St. John to come up with a way my parish could learn more about Natural Family Planning. Sheila was great to work with and full of ideas.

My parish is a Newman Center Parish so I wanted to make sure the college students could learn about NFP as well. I have always believed that NFP is not something that should just be learned six months before getting married. Why not in High School or College? So, Sheila and I came up with a schedule that began on a Saturday and ended on a Thursday. I asked Sheila to give ‘Intro to NFP’ talks to different groups starting with young mother and engaged couples, the Newman Center, and our Ongoing Adult Formation group. Sheila concluded the week, by offering a method specific Introductory Session, for those wishing to go beyond learning “about” NFP, to begin the actual process of learning to use it in their own lives. During the time in between the talks, Sheila had office hours, for couples who would like to meet with her.

The first official meeting we held, only one engaged couple showed up. But they were very interested and engaged in the topic If only one couple was helped and better prepared for a lifetime of marriage, I was ok with that.

Our next meeting was Sunday night, following the 6pm Mass, at the regular meeting time of the college students of our Newman Center. The pandemic had hurt the normal attendance of our Newman Center meetings but the college students and young adults in our area showed up for this topic. 25 young adults showed up that night, men and women, and all were very engaged and asking great questions of Sheila. I felt it was a great success and it gave me a lot of hope to see these young people so open and interested on this topic.

Our next talk was held on Wednesday, on the night we do ongoing adult formation. It was another great session with about 15 people in attendance.

All these talks led up to Thursday, where those who were interested could attend the actual training of the Creighton Model of NFP.

I am very grateful to Sheila and CANFP for taking the time to spend almost a week in Turlock helping my parish and others learn NFP. It was also great to see Sheila able give a talk at St. Joseph’s in nearby Modesto, and as a guest speaker to four classes of seniors, and one sophomore class, at Central Catholic High School, teaching the students Fertility Appreciation.

I think the “NFP Week” was a great trial run and learning experience that could possibly be done again for each of our deaneries in the Diocese of Stockton. We need to cultivate the next generation of NFP teachers and leaders, and I think this week went a long way towards doing just that.