During Natural Family Planning (NFP) Awareness Week, the Diocese of Phoenix's Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted has taken the opportunity to share some quotes on the topic of marriage and family.

"The graces received by husband and wife on their wedding day ... are renewed whenever they listen to God’s word at Mass, pray over it during the week in their home, and strive to put His word into practice,” Olmsted said in a Friday post on the diocese’s Facebook page. “How blest is the house of those who listen to God’s word and act on it.” 

NFP Awareness Week, which is coming to an end, allows Catholics to reflect on how best to enjoy intimacy with their partner while still keeping the size of their family manageable.

NFP is built on the foundation of marriage as a gift through which spouses can share in God's procreative love, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said. It treats fertility as a priceless gift that should not be rejected, while contending that contraception is a suppression of the gift of fertility and a rejection of the total union of husband and wife.

NFP does not mean that married couples must leave the size of their family up to chance. Rather, they are encouraged to learn about the human fertility cycle, taking advantage of a woman’s infertile times to practice sexual intimacy if they don’t want children.

Contraception is frowned upon by the Church, as it is considered an assertion of one's belief that humans should have total control over the creation of life, rejecting God's design; the bishops said.

Olmsted has posted quotes throughout NFP Awareness Week. Previously, he shared these:

“The words of the Catholic marriage rite beautifully express four qualities of marital love: free, total, faithful and fruitful.” 

"God wants to increase a profound communion of love in your family that corresponds to the deepest desires of your hearts.” 

"[My parents'] motherly and fatherly acceptance of my life and that of my 5 siblings and the common, simple home life that we lived, allowed God to form us and prepared us to follow His will.”