Natural Family Planning as Pilgrimage

Recently, I had the incredible blessing of walking the Camino de Santiago. This ancient pilgrimage led my family and me across northern Spain, where we followed the footsteps of St. James the Apostle and ended at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It was a powerful time of prayer and miracles. During my trip, however, I realized that you don’t need to walk across Spain to go on a pilgrimage. Living out the Natural Family Planning lifestyle is a pilgrimage itself.  

Before I left, I understood that a pilgrimage is a path to God—a visible trip representing an invisible journey. Thanks to St. John Paul II’s gift of the Theology of the Body,  I also understood why a physical journey is capable of leading us on a spiritual journey. (It is because we are body and soul composites.) It was not until after I returned home, however, that I made the connection between the Camino and my NFP lifestyle.    

My fellow pilgrims helped me make this connection by reminding me about the role our bodies play on a pilgrimage. Almost every day, someone would share with me, “I’m learning to listen to my body.” As a NFP advocate, you can imagine how quickly my mind jumped to fertility charting upon hearing this phrase. I was delighted to witness how the Camino could teach my new friends one of the most important lessons that NFP taught me: our bodies communicate with us. Listening to our bodies is one of the most important aspects of any pilgrimage.   

On one level, we must understand what our bodies are saying to merely survive the experience. The physical trials of the Camino have a lot in common with the those of NFP. If you feel a twinge in your knee while walking the Camino, you should walk ten miles instead of the twenty you had planned. In a similar way, if you use NFP and observe that it is a fertile day while hoping to postpone pregnancy, you and your spouse should abstain. You will not be able to complete the Camino or use NFP successfully if you do not learn to listen to your body.

On a much deeper level, we must understand our bodies to experience the blessings of the journey. I have witnessed both the Camino and NFP cure bodies, strengthen relationships, heal heartache, and restore positive body image. While these are powerful fruits, the ultimate blessing of a pilgrimage is to grow closer to God. Pilgrims on the Camino and couples who use NFP learn that our bodies can lead the way. Pilgrims with blistered feet patiently walk hundreds of miles to find Him. Couples who use NFP joyfully suffer through times of abstinence to honor Him. We know that our bodies lead us to God because God wrote the Gospel into our bodies. If our bodies were not a part of who we are, the physical trials of the Camino and of NFP would not be able impact our spiritual lives.  

Pilgrimage is difficult. Walking the Camino and using NFP are full of challenges and even suffering. But pilgrimage is joyful; after all, it leads us to our loving God. As we said to fellow pilgrims along the Camino, I now say to you, “Buen Camino!” (Good way!)