We Have Come to Know and Believe in the Love God has for Us

Hello. I am Fr. John Warburton, OSJ. This past September of 2021, I celebrated my 51st anniversary of becoming an Oblate of St. Joseph and my 41st anniversary of being ordained a Catholic priest. I am rich in family. I have eight brothers and one sister; one brother-in-law and multiple sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces. I am currently the Pastor of St. Joachim Parish in Madera, CA. I continue to support and be part of a marriage preparation process called, Life-Giving-Love. It was put in place by a previous Pastor, Fr. Larry Toschi, OSJ, a long time CANFP Advisory Board member and supporter. It includes six classes, a two-day workshop, and NFP classes. In view of what is happening in the world, I have come to consider our parish marriage preparation ministry, together with the support we get from CANFP, to be the most important and relevant part of our participation in the Church’s mission of the New Evangelization.

1966-1967 marked my senior year in high school. Most of the year the flag was flying at half-mast in an effort to honor alumni who were coming back in body bags from the Viet Nam War. A timely question which received attention in my Speech and English classes was, “What’s wrong with the world?” Paraphrased, the question became, “What’s the cause of all the poverty, hunger, war, injustice and suffering in the world?” With some visits to the school library to do research, it was not hard to find a consensus in the magazines and newspapers of the day: OVERPOPULATION! If this was the problem, then the common-sense solution is to find ways to have fewer humans on the planet. Married couples should be encouraged to have “safe sex” by using the new technologies of pills, patches and surgeries to help them sterilize their marriage acts. With my immaturity in regard to intellectual, moral and religious conversion, I began wondering if it would be practical to add chemicals to the water supplies of countries like China and India so as to reduce the fertility among the people.

During the second half of my senior year I had a “falling in love with God” experience. This experience was triggered by falling in love with an incredibly good and beautiful sophomore named, Mary Jo. I could not explain her beauty and goodness apart from a personal all-Good God who had created her. My Christian beliefs began to ring true. Mary Jo was more mature in her Faith than I. She was asking the vocation question, “What is God calling me to do with my life?”

I became interested in the same vocation question, which prompted me to enter a college seminary in order to learn how to pray. It did not take long for me to become convinced that SIN, OUR ALIENATION FROM GOD, IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE WORLD, AND THAT THE SOLUTION IS SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST!

Over the years I became more and more aware of the great conflict between good and evil taking place all around me and in me. I came to see with St. Paul that our battle is not with flesh and blood but with the devil and his army of demons (see Eph. 6:12). I also came to see that Jesus has already won the decisive victory over the devil. At the heart of my conversion is this truth, “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16).

Shortly after the election of Pope John Paul II, I was ordained a deacon in Rome. John Paul II became my hero and my sure guide. By adhering to his wisdom, his holiness and his leadership I have come to understand where the front lines of the battle are, and how we, Christ’s Church, can bring Jesus’ victory to those most affected by the tactics of the evil one.

in 1983, two years after the May 13th, 1981 assassination attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II, Sr. Lucia, one of the children at Fatima, wrote, “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid. Anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will be contended and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.”

From 1979 to 1984 Pope John Paul II presented his systematic teaching on human dignity, love, marriage and family in his Wednesday audiences. This teaching has become known as, “Theology of the Body.” It provides the in-depth, comprehensive, convincing Faith and Reason foundation for the truths proclaimed by St. Pope Paul VI in his 1968 Encyclical, Humanae Vitae. If I were to sum up the heart of Humanae Vitae and Theology of the Body in one sentence it would be: In God’s plan, each and every marriage act is meant to be a free, total, faithful, open-to-new-life gift of self to a spouse which renews the marriage covenant.

When true love calls for a couple’s decision to space their children, or, limit the number of children, then periodic abstinence, through one of the methods of Natural Family Planning, is the moral means for accomplishing that responsibility. Every parish has the mission to share this Gospel truth with couples in a convincing way as they prepare for their Sacrament of Matrimony.

I began to recognize all the propaganda about overpopulation as a Satanic lie. I came to see how it has led to the “silent holocaust,” to the ongoing genocide of the human race through pornography, lust, contraception, sterilization and legal abortion. In 2020 there were 42 million surgical abortions worldwide. Abortion is the greatest cause of unnatural death in our world. Marriages and families are being torn apart by the same evils that are causing abortions.

I am so grateful to CANFP, through its Newsletters, Conferences, Library of Resources and Network of Experts, that gives my Marriage Preparation Teams, and the couples of my Parish, the knowledge and the means for living and sharing the Good News of Marriage in Christ.

Prayer for Marriage and Family

Triune Lord of Life and Love,
Bless husbands and wives
With the graces
To be life-giving lovers
And life-loving givers.

As generous and responsible parents,
Who respect children As the most excellent fruit of marriage,
May every marital embrace
Be free, total, faithful And open to new life.

May the dark scourge
Of self-centered anxiety,
Contraception, sterilization, abortion,
And every other sin against the
Sacred meaning of human sexuality,
Be vanquished by your healing Mercy,
Coupled with the graces
To faithfully live
The glorious beauty of your purpose
For marriage and family,

In the image of the Holy Family,
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
And in your own Image:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

 

Una Oración Para Matrimonios y Familias

Trinidad Divina, Señor de Vida y de Amor,
Bendice a los esposos con Tu gracia
Para qu sean amantes qe den vida
Y qu den vida amorosamente.

Como padres generosos y responsables
Que respeten a sus hijos como los frutos
Más preciosos de su matrimonio,
QuE cada abrazo matrimonial
Sea libre, total, fiel y abierto a nueva vida.

Que la mortificación negra
De la ansiedad egoísta,
La contracepción, la esterilización, el aborto
Y caulquier otro pecado en contra del
Prepósito sagrado de la sexualidad humana,
Desaparezca con Tu Misericordia sanadora,
Junto a la gracia de vivir fielmente
La gloriosa belleza de Tu designio para el
Matrimonio y la familia.

A lo imagen de la Sagrada Familia,
Jesús, María y José,
Y en Tu imagen Divina:
Padre, Hijo y Espiritu Santo. Amen

Prayer for Marriage and Family —Father John Warburton, OSJ, in collaboration with Michele & Tom Spencer. Reprinted from Guardian of the Redeemer Magazine with the permission of the Oblates of St. Joseph. Prayer cards available in both English and Spanish from the California Association of Natural Family Planning HERE