The same thing can happen with topics and activities. Some people are drawn to working out and love the experience but for the life of me I can't figure out why that happens. I feel drawn to the pro-life movement and more specifically to educating people on Natural Family Planning. It is natural, safe and empowering. I have so much information and knowledge and freedom to let my body work in its own way and own time.
Finally I read an article that talks about Natural Family Planning in a way that I think will help priests. It talks about understanding the woman and drawing people in by explaining the beauty of the system. The full article comes in response to a recent conference, but there is a great excerpt from when Pope John Paul II was in California. Here is a firsthand account of his discussion on Theology of the Body and NFP:
Holy Father said that in the great and difficult moral issues we should teach in such a way that people would see church teaching as attractive and be drawn to it. A few months later, at lunch with several other bishops during the “ad limina” visit, I reminded him of what he said, and asked, “Holy Father, how do we do this?” The pope became very serious. Philosophical. “It is necessary to understand the soul of the woman. All these things which were meant to liberate her; premarital sex, birth control, abortion. Have they liberated her, or have they enslaved her?” The challenge he gave to the bishops on that lovely sunny day at the old mission in California must be taken up. It seems the beauty and attractiveness of Catholic moral teaching have only now begun to find a serious hearing among many people. We must take up the challenge to share, especially with our young people, the beauty of Catholic moral teaching in the area of sexuality and marital life, and the value of Natural Family Planning which respects the law of God and the dignity of the woman.
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