Reply to Something I don't understand about criticism of big families

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"So what does being "open to children" mean to you?"

Miracle of God, and all that.[/quote]

OP here to own my words.  Yes, I am "open to children," "open to life."

What that means for faithful Catholics is simply that every act of sex is open to the possibility of life resulting.  It does not mean trying to have as many kids as possible, or that sex is only to be enjoyed when there is a high likelihood of pregnancy.  Not at all.  [b]It means God designed sex to be unitative and procreative, inseparably so, and it needs to be respected as such.[/b]  So couples may use fertility awareness, but they may not use "contra"-ception--artificial means to inhibit or destroy natural conception.

Full justice to this beautiful concept cannot be done here, but that's a brief attempt to clear up any confusion.

Living out God's plan for sex will result in great joy, but also require great virtue.  There may be infertility, or recurrent miscarriages, or many babies close together, or many periods of chastity.  You never know.  And how you deal with the crosses you bear is something you need to answer to God for--but He will always give you the graces to endure, and you can trust He won't give you a scorpion when you ask for bread.

I have had great joy and great suffering in the gift of my fertility, and I try to thank God for all of it. That is what I am called to do, but it can be hard.  I'm only human, and I have my wants, and it is difficult to say "Thy will, not mine, be done."

On a practical note, some women welcome huge families, and some women fear them, and some women change their mind along the way.  It's a work in progress.  For me, I love my huge family, and I always hoped I would be blessed with many children, but I know that is a special gift I have--for many faithful Catholics, it is a huge struggle.

I had another thought, but it will have to wait until the kids are in bed--husband's train is here...[/quote] [b] Do you have some support for that proposition?  A citation, perhaps? [/b] [/quote]

Are you asking for a citation of Church teaching?

If so, there is Humanae Vitae:

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pa06hv.htm

Blessed Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tbind.htm

Or The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality:

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_cf9601.htm

Brief summary of history of Church teaching:

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/birth-control

"The Church also has affirmed that the illicitness of contraception is an infallible doctrine: "The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity, it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the [b]procreative[/b] aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the [b]unitive[/b] aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life" (Vademecum for Confessors 2:4, Feb. 12, 1997).

Is that what you were looking for?[/quote]

No, not really.  Church teachings and other man-made constructs aren't helpful in determining the intentions of God, since they're the product of human fallability and institutional bias and inefficiency.  Is that all you have?  Or is your statement that about the mind of God just the regurgitation of what other people think God means? [/quote]

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