Thousands of years of art, music, poetry and literature give overwhelming evidence of the wonderful human experience of love. But what is it? Pope John Paul II gives a solid answer:

“Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of will that consists of preferring, in a constant manner, the good of others to the good of oneself” (We Wish to See Jesus, 2004).

Love is experienced of course most fully in human relationships. Family, friends and acquaintances can all be the source of very fruitful experiences of love. In all of them, an ‘acid-test’ for their durability is whether or not they encourage us to give of ourselves. Relationships can often turn selfish. But if we are making sincere attempts to look to the needs of the other before our own, that is a pretty safe bet that we are on the right lines.

There is a challenge to face here especially when it comes to friendships between members of the opposite sex. Here, many people see love in terms only of a mutual attraction that does not go very deep. The attraction is a good thing, since every man harbours a deep longing to cherish a woman and give himself to her, and every woman has a profound sense of the need to be cherished and so give herself, with all her capacities for enhancing life, in return. The two dynamics working together bring about a very powerful force.