It doesn’t take long when first discovering the world of natural family planning to realize that most couples have a love/hate relationship with NFP. The reasons to love it are obvious and the reasons to hate it are obvious. It is a strange mix of sweet...
Let’s face it. As wonderful as the idea of Natural Family Planning (NFP) can sound, the reality for many couples can be far from that beautiful ideal. A common thread amongst frustrated couples trudging their way through the trenches of NFP is that the...
What is the purpose of intimacy? This question is at the heart of the video "Theology of the Body (Catholic Sexuality). The Church's teaching about sex is a topic that probably garners the most attention in today's culture. Why? Because the idea of waiting until...
I think it is safe to say that we’ve all had conversations with people where both parties are clearly not on the same page. Sometimes, the differing stories involve differing definitions for terms. I had a philosophy professor who urged us to always define our terms...
Okay, before everyone starts to throw tomatoes at us over here, let me explain. Yes, love is love, and everyone is created for love. If that's the case, then why do people think the Church is against love? Or why is this phrase so taboo in Catholic circles? Maybe it's...
When I was dating and engaged, I often wondered what chastity in marriage looked like. Having just celebrated my fourth wedding anniversary with my dear husband, and also having counseled couples in a faith-based therapy setting, here are a handful of takeaways that...
Here in my home diocese, the Diocese of Phoenix, taking a multiple-month class on Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a mandatory part of marriage preparation. I honestly wish this was the case everywhere. NFP, when used properly, is just as effective or more effective...
“The Cry of the Heart,” is a new film by evangelist Christopher West and the Cor Project addressing JPII's Theology of the Body. Based on the General Audiences given by the pope during the course his pontificate, West explains the meaning of our corporeality, why we...
Living a life of chastity is probably one of the most challenging calls of Catholic disciples today! There are so many myths regarding what it means to be a virgin - and what it means to simply be a person who embraces a life of chastity. Since chastity is quite...
In this high school assembly, Jason Evert and Crystalina Padilla (not yet married at the time) offer straight answers to teens' toughest questions on dating, relationships, and how to have romance without regret. Through their humor, honesty, and powerful testimonies,...
“Look at the face of the other.… Discover that he has a soul, a history, and a life, that he is a person, and that God loves this person.” - Benedict XVI One of the most important services we hope to render in our media ministry at Catholic-Link is to connect our...
Terry Crews was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1968 and was drafted by the NFL's Los Angeles Rams in 1991. After several years playing pro football, Crews retired and pursued an acting career, which took flight on the big screen in 2000's The 6th Day. Many film...
One of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life is to master the virtue of chastity. It seems that everywhere we turn the world is pulling us away from the ideals God calls us to. Some people naively think that the struggle to remain chaste will go...
Beauty is the glory of the body. Yet there are many ways of perceiving it and too often we fail to grasp the types of beauty that, like treasures, are buried deeper within. What's more, many consider Catholic morality as suppression of beauty, rather than a...
Though many see big families a blessing, there are those who are called to limit family size for just reasons. So, what is a good Catholic to do in order to practice responsible parenthood? Does NFP really work? The Church has taken a stand against artificial methods...
Nowadays, waiting to have sex until marriage is an “out-of-date” idea, but as the video explains, there is a deeper meaning to sex. God has created us to live together, specifically, through the vocation of marriage. The Lord God said, "It is not good that...
Most people are aware that pornography brings with it –even from a purely secular point of view– some seriously negative results. Many are calling it “the new drug.” The number of ruptured families, relationships, and personal lives should give sufficient proof of its...
Today’s video brings to light a horrifying and saddening subject, and it's high time more of us speak out against it. Indeed, it's hard to figure why, when every other cause and issue seems to take up residence in our collective awareness, our society is reluctant to...
Going the fair together In today’s world, it seems as though the only gesture of love between two people is through a sexual act. Aside from the beauty and virtue of love between a man and woman, we tend to forget Chastity as a path to true love, as a way of preparing...
Let’s break this down. Elna Baker is a young Mormon woman who lives in New York. Her testimony of life in the city without drugs and sex is comical but proves to be difficult for her as she shares that she cannot sustain a relationship for more than four weeks without...
Over 2,400 years ago, a young man, immersed in the upheavals of the last years of the Peloponnesian War that was destroying the old order of things, made a dazzlingly eloquent speech with one basic idea: people should give their favor to non-lovers rather than lovers,...
A group of young Catholics decided to respond to the 22 youth, all employees at BuzzFeed, that participated in this post which shares their reasons in favor using contraceptives. The response wasn't an official BuzzFeed post, rather the...
Have you noticed that people spend a lot of time talking and thinking about sex? As a result, so does the Church! This video takes a pretty scientific look at the economics of sex, in which sex is considered in the same light as the distribution of goods and...
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor in the well-known sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun and, more recently, Batman, has written and directed a feature film called Don John. Out Sept. 27 and starring Gordon-Levitt opposite Scarlett Johansson, turns a critical eye to the role of...
Today's video is a production by Unearthed Pictures. The idea is to raise awareness of the true problem behind the outbreak of sexual exploitation: namely, the human heart. The video is valuable in the sense that it reveals a very real and very tragic situation that...