{"id":2466,"date":"2011-06-22T02:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2011-06-22T02:02:45","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:02:45","slug":"sex-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/sex-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex Is Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Catholics aren’t known for being knowledgeable about sex. The extreme stereotype says we’re ashamed of it, and our bodies. We have sex only because of\u00a0marital\u00a0duty and we shouldn’t enjoy it. The stereotype says that we\u00a0acknowledge\u00a0we need to do it, but almost as a necessary evil. Wow. I know aspects of this has existed in time past, but simply wow. St. Therese of Lisieux’s parents, Bls.\u00a0Louis and Zelie
\nMartin, abstained for sex for the almost the first year of marriage, and the story goes that Zelie had to have a priest convince Louis that is was holy to have marital sex.<\/p>\n

In reality, the Church proclaims that sex is great. Bl. John Paul II wrote<\/a> and spoke of sex often; however, he didn’t invent anything new. He did present the timeless teaching of the Church in a new way that expressed sexuality as part of a greater context of our creation. Our sexuality is not something to be shunned or ashamed of, but rather, be embraced, understood, cultivated within its proper God-given context. \u00a0That last part is what gets the Church the bad looks these days–proper context. We all know the teachings: sex is meant for within marriage,\u00a0contraception are flawed as they inhibit the free gift of self between the married couple (and many simply prevent a\u00a0conceived\u00a0child from implanting). Within our culture, this is all seem as a negative. We get to have less sex with only one person while being on the line for what may result. There’s no upside.<\/p>\n

The beauty of Bl. John Paul’s work is that he outlines why this couldn’t be further from the truth. When we shift our thinking about the incredible\u00a0opportunity, joy and gift of sex to align with the incredible opportunity of\u00a0matrimony, \u00a0it’s mindblowing. It’s like the excitement when the lab when you realize that bacteria didn’t grow with penicillin or when the Post-It note was born. Through marriage, you both\u00a0give everything<\/em> to the other. \u00a0Sex is not about getting something (or getting some, as the lingo goes), it’s about\u00a0giving<\/em> something–yourself completely unifying yourselves in a way that mimics the unity of God. The possible result isn’t a burden, but the fruit of God blessing you to be a co-creator of life.<\/p>\n

Alright, so great. Yeah, Catholics think sex is awesome. Cool. Right on. But, we’re still out-dated when it comes to the medicinal or scientific aspects of sexuality. Or are we?<\/p>\n

Most people think of Natural Family Planning (NFP) as the way Catholics avoid having kids. It’s really much, much more than that. Yes, some people use it to avoid pregnancy (and studies<\/a> show that is more effective than the pill, reported in the secular press as well<\/a>). Others use it to try to achieve\u00a0pregnancy. Before getting married, I didn’t think there was much purpose to it beyond that. In learning more about it, many couples talk about how it improves their communication, enhances their sex life since they’re more engaged in it besides just the short time under the sheets and other side benefits like that. What really struck me was the health aspects of NFP.<\/p>\n

My wife and I started charting (NFP lingo for tracking the various natural indicators in her body) near the time of our wedding. With all of the methods, you work with another person to help you learn the system and to understand the meaning of the indicators. In one of our first “follow-up” meetings, we are looking at the chart and the instructor surprised me. She points to a part of the chart that looks different from the most-typical-example from the guide and says “This is common, and most typically a sign of [some Greek\/Latin sounding medical term I can’t recall]. You should consult with a doctor about this and may explain these\u00a0symptoms.”<\/p>\n

Wait, what? She could tell us symptoms my wife noticed, but never voiced, after looking at some stickers on a chart?<\/p>\n

We were referred to Dr. Mikeal Love because of his medical approach. He wanted to see my wife’s NFP chart. Apparently, there are a lot of hormones active in a woman’s body and a great many of them fluctuate based on the monthly cycle. If a hormone is needed to be\u00a0supplemented, many doctors will prescribe it to be taken all the time, but Dr. Love, based on the chart, could pinpoint the specific days in the month that a hormone should be presented. A pill a couple times of the month for a couple of months and presto, all normal and done. Even more incredible is that I have no idea if Dr. Love is Catholic. We’re almost positive he’s not. He’s just an advocate for women’s health done in a way that works with the woman’s body, not against it.<\/p>\n

NFP enabled us to figure this out and reduce the amount of pills the doctor would ask her to take while being more effective with fewer side effects. Really? I mean really? Mind blown.<\/p>\n

This aspect of NFP is why I was most excited to hear about Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides<\/a> starting the Vitae Clinic here in Austin. In addition with working directly with women who wanted to take advantage of this lesser-known benefit of NFP, he educates constantly the Austin community about how NFP is good for so much more than the only stereotypical avoiding pregnancy.<\/p>\n

This Sunday evening, the St. Mary’s Cathedral Young Adult Ministry is sponsoring a talk by Dr. Kalamarides on “The New Sexual Revolution: Reproductive Medicine in Light of Theology of the Body” — check out the Facebook Event<\/a>. This is a presentation not to be missed. Men and women, married or not, you have to hear about this growing realm of medicine. Absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n

Sex is good and that’s how God intended it. The more we embrace sex and the underlying context, the more we understand not only about spirituality and creation, but about how our bodies were designed to work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catholics aren’t known for being knowledgeable about sex. The extreme stereotype says we’re ashamed of it, and our bodies. We have sex only because of\u00a0marital\u00a0duty and we shouldn’t enjoy it. The stereotype says that we\u00a0acknowledge\u00a0we need to do it, but almost as a necessary evil. Wow. I know aspects of this has existed in time… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4,89,88,91],"tags":[112,81,114,113,56,79,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-2466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"category-family","8":"category-marriage-blog","9":"category-young-adult","10":"tag-catholic-church","11":"tag-marriage","12":"tag-natural-family-planning","13":"tag-nfp","14":"tag-pope-john-paul-ii","15":"tag-sexuality","16":"tag-theology-of-the-body","17":"entry","18":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32233,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/the-actual-reason-contraception-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":2466,"position":0},"title":"The ACTUAL Reason Contraception is Wrong","author":"David Casper","date":"January 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Lately, I've been on the Internet. Depressing, I know. But I have. And in particular, I've noticed a widespread rash of anger directed at that crotchety old institution full of crotchety old men with crotchety old ideas: the Catholic Church. Seems there's this thing happening out there in the \"real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Oh! 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Is sex is about love, why should there be any restrictions? \u00a0 Catechetical Moment CCC #2333 \u00a0 Living the Truth How\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Beauty of Truth Podcast"","block_context":{"text":"Beauty of Truth Podcast","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/podcast\/beauty-of-truth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/BeautyOfTruthPodcastLogo-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":126292,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/if-youre-happy-and-you-know-it-its-a-sin-catholic-youth-dating-and-purity\/","url_meta":{"origin":2466,"position":2},"title":"“If You’re Happy and You Know It, It’s a Sin”- Catholic Youth Dating and Purity","author":"Matthew Hartwick","date":"July 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIf you\u2019re happy and you know it, it\u2019s a sin\u201d was a statement my former coworker made as to how he thought the Catholic Church viewed sexuality and dating. \u00a0He made that statement because I had told them I was waiting for marriage and wanted to be chaste. Unfortunately, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-xaf1\/v\/t1.0-9\/11073353_844202338968819_7183954090317258280_n.jpg?oh=d84469c496911732e4725b2a9bdb0954&oe=561D9B57","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44823,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/join-together-response-economics-sex\/","url_meta":{"origin":2466,"position":3},"title":"Join Together: A Response to “The Economics of Sex”","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"March 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Men and women have to get on the same page if we're ever going to get marriage and family life back in good shape. I usually write book reviews here, but reading and then telling you *most* of the story and how well I thought it was written is just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hearts-economicsofsex","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hearts-economicsofsex-630x472.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12232,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/sex-love-and-the-pill\/","url_meta":{"origin":2466,"position":4},"title":"Sex, Love and the Pill","author":"Kathryn Whitaker","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The last several weeks, my husband and I have hovered over our smart phones and iPads, reading every possible article about the HHS mandate and controversy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen tweets, read controversial FB status updates, scrolled through interesting blog posts and had engaging conversations with Catholics and non-Catholics.\u00a0 While the controversy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/shutterstock_298879_wedding-table-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16254,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/marriage-saltwater\/","url_meta":{"origin":2466,"position":5},"title":"Marriage & Saltwater","author":"Casey Truelove","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Catholics believe that it is impossible for people of the same sex to marry each other. This particular Church teaching is one of the most often attacked from without (and, unfortunately, dissented from within). 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