My wife and I were happily married throughout her life. We were blest with seven children who, with our 23 grandchildren, are the joy of our life. It was tough going at times, and our attempts to regulate the number of children by “natural” means were anything but! We tried the temperature and calendar methods based on the so-called safe period and found in our case that, far from safe, they made us feel as though we were monitoring a disease, not looking forward to spontaneous love-making. When our seventh child was on the way we discussed the matter with our outstanding Army padre who advised us that barrier contraception would be well justified in our circumstances and subjecting our family to avoidable tension by trying to stick to Church rules was too high a price to pay for peace in the lives of us and the children. Notwithstanding Humane Vitae we took his advice: he was our shepherd on the spot and knew the full story. We and of course our children continued living our Faith in joy, with no question of abstaining from our essential spiritual food, the Eucharist. They now all have children of their own and love God, each other, their brothers and sisters and their neighbour as well as God’s grace makes it possible for us.{jcomments on}