2024: Simple

A Letter from Lauren

December 12, 2024

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Simple. This year was about keeping things simple. The busyness of daily life can be enough to make us yearn for simplicity, and this yearning was amplified in our family by job changes, chronic conditions flaring up, and terminal illness in our extended family requiring greater care. We coped by the grace of God, and with a few amazing trips to see mountains and moose (though sadly the moose never made an appearance). Between road trips and Rosaries, the Lord invited me over and over again: simply love.

Love Him. Love my family. Love the person in front of me. Love my own body. It is simple. It’s not always easy, but it is simple. The chaos will continue around us, but peace is possible even in the wild rumpus.

I’m certain many of you can relate to this greater need for simplicity. Likely many have come to learn the Marquette Method for its relative simplicity as an NFP method. One of our goals at Whole Mission is to provide a simple way of signing up for a class, and getting started learning ASAP. Many of our clients have three or more children, and minimizing complexity is the name of the game.

This year I was faced with more health challenges than usual, and despite the five c-sections pretty much solidifying our family size for a few years, new medications really confirmed the fact that my husband and I are probably done having biological children. This simple fact is painful. It seems a strange greediness that I have, longing for more babies when I have five amazing children. It seems so excessive when I have been blessed by fertility and children, to still desire more. I believe it’s the Lord who gives us these abundant and simple longings. I believe he wants us to know how he desires us, and reminds us to seek the one thing worthy of all of our desires: Him. His love is infinite, and we can always desire more.

My persistent work in natural family planning education also brings forth another realization: each of us is called to be fruitful in our current vocation, in our current stage of life. This fruitfulness isn’t for the future or the past, or to be compared with someone else’s call to holiness. We have unique calls right here and now. Just because I’m beyond babies doesn’t mean I’m past my fruitful years. Single, married, divorced, widowed, celibate: each person is called to fruitfulness.

“By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (Jn 15:8)

How do we bear fruit, even if it looks different in different times of life?

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (Jn 15:9-10)

We remain in God’s love, and keep His commandments. And I think it’s simpler than we initially imagine to keep His commandments. We don’t need to memorize a list, or study for ages, or read every saint quote on earth.

“This I command you: love one another.” (Jn 15:17)

We simply love.

This year I’m so grateful for the opportunities to simplify my own life, and hopefully simplify natural family planning for a few married couples out there. It’s my hope that we’re equipping you to love each other better in the ordinary of everyday life, with just a few minutes of NFP charting. Then you can go sip your coffee together and discern the huge and holy plans God has for your life, right here and now.

Gratefully and Simply,