Free Will, Pride, and Humility

Last Friday I wrote a post for Catholic Sistas called "Come Holy Spirit, Give us Humility." It is the eighth post in a monthly series we have been doing since December on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

I have known that I was going to write this post since last November. I have had lots of different thoughts about it since that time. I prayed about it, I looked for anything I could find on humility during those many months, I looked for examples of humility around me (lots of that to go around between both Pope Emeritus Benedict and Pope Francis), and I tried to let the Holy Spirit lead me to the right words.

There was one thing on my mind a lot that I thought tied into the virtue of humility quite well. But when all was said and done, it didn't make it into the post at all, which was probably for the best. But it's continued to be on my mind so I'm going with it here in this space.

There are people in our world, some of whom are very well-known public figures, who claim to be Catholic even when they hold viewpoints that are contradictory to the Church. In some cases, these people are just poorly catechized. But in more notable cases, it's obvious that poor catechesis is not to blame.

For those who were educated in the faith at some point with the Church's correct teachings on an issue, I've often seen that a person will still hold onto erroneous beliefs simply because they think they have the "free will" to do so. I'm thinking of one person in particular and her very public stand on her supposed faith and the issue of abortion. However, I believe this applies to a lot of people. She is not an anomaly, just one of many very lost and confused souls.

There are many problems here. First a misunderstanding of Free Will. Second, pride. And third, an unwillingness to humble oneself before the Church.

Free Will
I hate when people throw around the idea of free will as meaning that they can do whatever they want. That's not free will. To properly exercise free will, one has to have a well-formed conscience. Without that, you really are just doing whatever you want.

The God-given gift of Free Will is so that we will love God because we want to. He didn't want a bunch of robots on Earth who would love Him for no other reason than He made them that way. No, He wanted us to freely choose to love Him. The problem is that we can also abuse this gift of Free Will. Adam and Eve did and pretty much every human being since then has at one point or another.

Choosing to use Free Will to take a stand contrary to the Church is nothing more than an attack against the Church. When a person claims to be a faithful Catholic and loves the Church, but then claims to hold beliefs contrary to Catholicism based on nothing more than Free Will, there is no love there. This is a downright rejection of God's Church and God Himself.

Pride
I look at this abuse of Free Will and I can't help but think that it is rooted in pride. Pride is not a virtue. It's a vice. It's one thing to be proud of your husband for completing a big project at work or proud of your kid for getting an A in a really difficult class. In those cases and similar ones, we are showing pride in someone else's hard work and dedication. But the kind of pride that we should not be delving into is the kind in which we are looking inward to ourselves only with the belief that we know better than God.

I was one of those who was poorly catechized. Before I was dragged brought more fully into the Church I held contrary beliefs to Holy Mother Church. But I don't think these were rooted in any sort of pride on my part. I was just ill-educated. However, when you know the Truth and specifically go against it, I can't help but wonder what is going on deep down in that person.

They say Free Will gives them the ability to believe what they want. But at the same time they say they are faithful to Catholicism. You can't have it both ways! The only explanation I can come up with is pride. A sense of knowing better than God knows and therefore, thinking that holding contrary beliefs is somehow justified.

Humility
The opposite of pride is humility. To be humble, you often have to put your own desires aside in favor of others. A prideful person can't do that. Pride is focus on self while humility is focus on the other. Let's go a step further.

When I was learning my way back to the Church I had to reconsider some of my viewpoints that were contrary to the faith. There were things I believed that I didn't even realized were against Church teaching. Some of those beliefs were pretty easy to reverse myself on once I understood the Church's position more. Others took me more time. Contraception was one that I really had a hard time understanding. I read a lot and still couldn't quite "get it." Eventually, I had to make a choice. Set aside my objections and accept what the Church taught whether I understood or not *or* walk away from the Church entirely.

I chose the route that kept me in the Church. Essentially, I willingly humbled myself to the Church. I decided that the Church was much older and wiser than I was and the best path was to trust in Her. This took a great deal of humility on my part. The best part is that by doing this I also opened myself to fully embrace the Church's teachings. If I had not been willing to humble myself I'd still be struggling with this teaching and may not be Catholic today because of it.

When a person is unwilling to humble themselves before the rich history and long-standing beliefs of a 2000 year old faith because of their own pride, they will never experience the richness and beauty that is the Catholic faith.

Overall, I feel sorry for those who can't see beyond the pride and error that has put them on a path contrary to the teachings of the faith they claim to profess. To get them to the point where they can be humble before the Church will take a lot of work. They have many hurdles to get through before that is even possible.

Let us pray for all those who are misguided in their understanding of the faith and who are too prideful to see the error of their ways. Let's pray that they will one day be brought to a point where they are willing to be humble before Holy Mother Church. St. Augustine, pray for us. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

[This post is my fourth in a row as part of the "7 post in 7 days" challenge.]

Living Counter-Culturally

From iusenfp.com

I am well aware that my husband and I live counter-culturally. I am not surprised by this when I do pop my head out of the Catholic bubble that I can often get caught up in and view the world around me. We do not live according to the norms accepted by our society today.

And it saddens me that what is considered "normal" is to pump a woman's body up with artificial hormones so that the normal, God-given way her body is supposed to work is suppressed.

And it is this reason that I write this post. The thing is, I am probably writing to people who are also in that same Catholic bubble that I am in. It can be easy to forget that not everyone understands the true freedom that is available when a woman learns how her body works, understands her cycles, and can stop the artificial hormones. So I feel like I'm preaching to the choir. However, on the off-chance that someone does read this who is on the fence or for whom this is new information, I do want to share a little about NFP.

I had serious doubts about Natural Family Planning (NFP) when I first started hearing about it. I was at a point in my life where I was trying to learn more about the Catholic Church to gain a better understanding of many of the teachings with which I did not agree. NFP was one of the hardest to find information about. But the amount of information out there today is amazing! Anyone who is looking for greater understanding today and just going to the internet as I was many years ago will have greater success than I did.

For that I am extremely grateful!

The best thing about NFP, from my perspective, is that I always know where in my cycle I am. And I have some messed up, wacky cycles at times. Believe me, if I can learn NFP and understand my cycles, anyone can! We have used NFP to conceive each and every time we have conceived. And we have used it to avoid during those times, particularly those months immediately following a miscarriage, when I was not physically or emotionally ready to conceive again. I can tell you with certainty that I have conceived on four different occasions and possibly a fifth.

Yes, a fifth. I don't know for certain whether we did or not and I may never know. It could potentially have been an unusually long luteal phase or it could have been a very early miscarriage. If you are unfamiliar with NFP terminology let me explain:

A luteal phase is the period of time between when a woman ovulates and when her next period begins. Regardless of the length of your cycle (which we all know can vary for a variety of purposes, like stress or weight gain/loss, etc.) your luteal phase is consistent within a day or two. Every. Single. Time. If a woman is also taking her basal body temperature (first temp of the morning) this is also the time when the temp rises due to an increase in progesterone and a decrease in estrogen. I have cycles that are occasionally 150 days long, more likely 45-60 or so days long, and sometimes 35-40 days long. No matter how long my cycle is from time of ovulation to my next period is 13-14 days, sometimes 15.

The cycle prior to the cycle in which I conceived our daughter Brigit. I had an 18 day luteal phase. I took a pregnancy test on day 17 that came back negative. [I have never been one for taking tests early.] I was sure I was pregnant, but then I got my period. Was I? Possibly. Possibly not. But because of the knowledge NFP has given me it does make me wonder sometimes.

This is just one example of the knowledge NFP can give someone about their body. There is so much more out there. If the idea of taking artificial hormones into your body bothers you, I urge you to consider something else, particularly NFP. And if you are still determined to remain on the other side of the fence, consider this:

From iusenfp.com

As I mentioned earlier, there are many great places to find information on NFP. I've noticed an increase in the number of these sites just recently. So I want to share them here:

iusenfp.com is a newer site with information on various NFP Methods, a blog, personal stories, lots of cool graphics, and more. They also have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. I love their graphics!!

www.1flesh.org is also a newer site and one I have only heard about but not looked into until I started writing this post. They also have a blog, informative articles, cool graphics, and more. Looks like they plan on selling gear some day too!

www.livingthesacrament.com is a Catholic NFP Community. I have been following them on Facebook but had not visited their website until today. Looks like they have lots of good information as well as forums, a blog, and lots of great resources. Even if you're not Catholic there could be lots of good info here if you're researching NFP. NFP is not just for Catholics, I hope you know.

There are many different ways to practice NFP and each is based on learning different patterns of your body's natural processes. I use a method called sympto-thermal, as taught be the Couple to Couple League. Other popular methods I am aware of include the Creighton Model and the Marquette Model. There are other methods as well. The groups I linked above all include links to these three methods as well as many others.

And let me just simply add: this is not your grandmother's rhythm method. Don't try to tell me it is.

Finally, this is NFP Awareness Week. The USCCB website has a page set up with all sorts of resources for this week. It is another great place to go for information.

If you're not yet at a place where you are willing to step out and start living counter-culturally that is okay. I encourage you to continue reading, researching, and asking questions. Check out the methods I listed, visit the websites, and maybe even take a class. You're not committing to it just by taking the class, but maybe, just maybe, you might hear something that will make sense and give you the courage to take that next step.

Isn't the health of your body (or your wife's body) worth it? Don't you think God gave us, as women, our bodies to work a certain way? Why should we mess with what He created? Did He not know what He was doing? Do we not trust God in what He gave us as women?

Good questions to ponder. I hope you will.

From iusenfp.org

Video for I have a say

Yesterday the video got posted for our "I have a say" counter-campaign on the Catholic Sistas website.  We got a lot of photos from people across the country.  If you sent one in, thank you!!!  If you don't see your photo in the video, don't worry, we hope to post pictures on the blog that didn't make it in.  We got so many that the person putting the video together was not able to get them all in.  More photos are welcome as well.  We're not above making two videos if we get enough!

Check you the original post explaining how the video came to be on the Catholic Sistas page here.  Video included.

Father John Hollowell of the Diocese of Indianapolis also posted the video on both of his blogs:
http://i--have--a--say.blogspot.com/2012/03/cool-i-have-say-photos-from-across-us.html
and
http://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-have-say-photos-from-across-us.html

Thanks again to all who sent in photos.  You helped make this video a reality.  Please share the links above and the video with as many friends as you can.

I have a say ...

The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, is presuming to speak for all women across America in supporting the HHS Mandate that will require all employers to provide contraceptive, abortion, and sterilization services for free to all employees regardless of religious moral beliefs.  You can see her video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0RXKHg1Wzk

But many of us do not stand with her and do not want her speaking for us.  So we have started a counter-campaign.  We are collecting photos to put together a video in response.  And we need your help!!  Create a sign that says "I have a say ... Cecile Richards does not speak for me!  Here comes the Catholic Church!" (be creative) and take a picture of yourself holding up the sign.**  Be sure the sign is legible.  Here is my picture:

Once you have your picture you can get it to us two ways:
1. Post it on the Facebook page for the Gospel of Life Committee -- Diocese of Owensboro, KY
Or
2. Send it to designsbybirgit{at}me{dot}com and it will be downloaded from there for inclusion in the video.

Here is another sample of photos posted by Designs by Birgit.  Send us photos as soon as possible, the sooner the better.  And have every member of the family participate, you do not have to be a woman to do this.  Thanks!!

More information on "I have a say" at Catholic Sistas.

**Or use this sign: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jQOFjZhCU_lIbIyhYIrqI881Vs7HkrIIzCVqLNUBlKk/edit

Stand with us or it will be YOU next

Over the last several days to a week, I have seen many of my friends post to Facebook about the recent HHS decision and "like" other friend's posts on the same.  Sometimes I read the comments from my friend's friends and follow the conversations for and against contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion.  The more I read the more I realize that people are missing the real issue.

What is the issue?  Is it the right for individuals to have access to free birth control?  Is it the about whether you can use your insurance coverage to get an abortion?  Or is it the right to be able to sterilize yourself from the "danger" of a future pregnancy?

No, no, and no.

If you work for a private company and your insurance coverage wants to pay for these things for you and you want to use them, then fine.  I may not agree personally, but that is the right of your company's insurance provider.

The issue is about the government (i.e. the state) mandating that a faith-based organization (i.e. the church) cover procedures and medications that said religious organization is opposed to.  Thus, the state stepping in to mandate the church do something contrary to the church's beliefs.

Hmmm!  Doesn't that sound like a "separation of church and state" issue.  I sure hope so, because that is EXACTLY what it is!

For us Catholics this is a matter of religious freedom and a policy that goes against our moral convictions.  For everyone else, this is a matter of the separation of church and state.  Maybe this mandate does not affect you and you don't care that Catholic employers (schools, hospitals, charitable organizations, colleges and universities) will be forced to comply with this mandate or close their doors.  Whether the specific mandate affects you specifically or not, the issue affects all of us.

If this administration feels that it can pass a mandate that does not allow for a comprehensive conscientious objection (there is an exemption, but it is extremely narrow) and thus go against the "separation of church and state" that has been a part of this nation's foundation since the beginning, then they can pass future mandates that will affect other religious groups as well.

Your religious liberties may not be threatened at this time, but if a precedent is set you may find yourself in the same position as Catholics are in now.  Stand with us: sign the petition the St. Michael's Society has put together, write to your congressmen and representatives, and let your Catholic friends know that you support them in fighting this mandate.  Next time it could be you and your religious liberties.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
They they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
                                           ~Martin Niemöller