RHYTHM METHOD: So I was reading about Humanae Vitae–the way you do–and I stumbled across a thing.

Both NFP and (unless I’m an internet-educated moron!) the Jewish laws of sexual behavior create a sort of rhythm of times of sexual fast and times of sexual feast. E.g. it’s a mitzvah to have sex with your wife at certain times. Time is sacralized in the marital act.

And so I wondered–can anything this side of the grave be sacred without some rhythm, without some time-boundaries, some liturgical season? Is liturgy, and its inherent musical shifting between sound and silence, necessary in order for us to apprehend some hint of eternity? This seems like the sort of paradox God always goes in for, where marriage prepares us for the place where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage….