Stewardship and NFP

“You are a gift from God. You are precious, very much loved, and no longer stinky!”

These are the loving words my wife says as she wraps up our littlest ones in a fluffy towel during their after bath time ritual. Their eyes light up and they smile knowing they are loved. My wife Veronica and I believe that as God made us temples of the Holy Spirit, we use NFP to continue to feel the warm embrace of His love– just as our children wrapped in a warm towel.

When we think of stewardship and NFP it encompasses a huge amount of territory. At its most basic level it is about honoring Jesus with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul. He created us and we owe him our best. However difficult it is, the standard remains high. We are all called to have a watchfulness over our mind and bodies and we believe using NFP is simply the best way to live out this daunting mandate during daily married life. It is not always easy but God continues to give us the grace needed to persevere.

Our practice of NFP also manifests itself in our support of CANFP. My wife and I enjoy the timely articles and the information the organization brings. When we first started our marriage we felt very strongly that NFP was an under utilized teaching of the Church. We hope our financial support of CANFP helps to spread the word.

“The meeting with Jesus is the event that which gives meaning to human Life and profoundly alters it, by opening to horizons of authentic freedom.” JPII WYD 1995

My wife and I met 19 years ago during World Youth Day 1995. I had three women praying for me to become a priest–one donated $600 to my trip. However, the Lord works in mysterious ways and I met my future wife instead! We do have four boys though, and are hopeful that at least one will become a priest. 14 years of marriage and 11 pregnancies later, here we are sharing in the mission of the Church through our little domestic church, the growing Rodda Family. We knew we wanted to be faithful to the Church and her teachings and that NFP was going to be a huge part of our lives.

This stewardship was probably most on display during our first pregnancy. 18 weeks in we found out that our baby had a genetic disorder, Limb Body Wall complex– a one in a million chance. The baby was not going to make it. We were told by our doctor that it would be dangerous to continue with the pregnancy past eight months. My wife and I argued over whether to induce by month eight or to continue the pregnancy to its natural end. Out of concern for my wife’s health, and my fear of losing her, I argued for the eight month induction. I consulted the best Catholic brains I knew about what to do– what official church teaching was. There was no consensus but the most convincing arguments came from a local catholic doctor who advised me to let nature take its course. While I waffled and ultimately came around to the natural point of view, on this point my wife never wavered. As long as the baby had a heartbeat, we were going to keep him–period! We prayed constantly for our baby and during the seventh month Jeremiah was born on January 22, 2001– the anniversary of Roe. He lived for ten minutes– long enough to open his eyes, take a breath and be baptized. He died in our arms. The amount of grace we received from this traumatic event has never ceased to amaze me. I feel the Lord has blessed us for being faithful–especially my wife who had complete trust from the beginning.

We did not wait too long to have another baby. In December of the same year, we had Kathleen, we brought her home Christmas day. She was five weeks early but otherwise healthy. The doctors told us to wait six weeks before becoming intimate again, which we surely did. We got pregnant the first time and James was born nine months later because he was six weeks early. I have been accused of hopping in the hospital bed but it is simply not true!

We realized that we were amazingly fertile so we started using NaPro technology to space births while my wife’s body recovered. Ten months was a good enough time for us and 19 months later, we had Joseph. We began to get more comfortable raising the kids, and 19 months after we had Gabriel. From Gabriel to Nathaniel, we had the biggest gap, 28 months. Kathleen was praying for a little sister but he turned out to be a brother. A week after giving birth to Nathaniel, James comes to us to say that he prayed for a little sister for Kathleen. 11 months later we had Ruth, two years after we had Anne, Miriam was also two years later. In between Anne and Miriam we lost our Peter who was born on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Teresa Rodda, our newest one arrived on the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila, Oct. 15, 2014.

Using and supporting NFP is not always easy. Self denial, whether during intimacy, eating ice cream, or putting down the remote when my wife asks, is never fun. All I can say is that after 14 years of marriage it is worth it. My body belongs to my wife, her’s to me, and both ultimately to the Lord. We try to be stewards of what He has given us – the powerful gift of our sexuality and the awesome responsibility of raising a large family. Our support financially of CANFP lets us feel as if we are doing our share to help spread this word. We have been fortunate to know the church’s wisdom on NFP and look forward to hopefully persevering to the end.