Formation for the sacrament begins long before an engaged couple shows up in the pastor’s office. In fact, if we think in terms of “remote, proximate, and immediate [formation]” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio [Apostolic Exhortation on the Family, 1981], 66), we enter a school of marriage the moment we leave the womb.

Morally speaking, Natural Family Planning is very different from contraception. Contraception is the intentional sterilization of the marital act that essentially says, “Life is not welcome here.” NFP, on the other hand, always remains open to life, even if a couple chooses to wait until the infertile window to share in the marital embrace.