Bibliography

Catholic Teaching:

1652: Catechism of the Catholic Church; "By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory."

2366: Catechism of the Catholic Church; "Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment.

2367: Catechism of the Catholic Church; "Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibilities."

2371: Catechism of the Catholic Church; "Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: Their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny."

Scriptural References

Genesis: 1:28; God blessed them, saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it."

Genesis 9:1; God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth."

Genesis 9:7; "As for you, be fruitful, multiply, teem over the earth and be lord of it."

Genesis 28:3; * May El Shaddai (Yahweh) bless you (Jacob); may he make you fruitful and make you multiply so that you become a group of nations.

Psalms: 107:38; He blesses them, they grow in number,

Psalms: 127:3; Sons are a bounty from Yahweh, he rewards with descendants.

Proverbs: 17:6; The crown of the aged is their children's children; the children's glory is their father.

Isaiah 51:2; Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. For he was all alone when I called him, but I blessed and increased him.

Malachi: 1:15; *Did he (Yahweh) not create a single being (husband and wife) that has flesh and the breath of life? And what is this single being destined for? God-given offspring. Be careful for your own life, therefore, and do not break faith with the wife of you youth. *For I hate divorce, says Yahweh the God of Israel, and I hate people to parade their sins on their cloaks, says Yahweh Sabaoth. Respect your own life, and do not break faith like this.

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