In advance of his talk on“Betrothed Love: The Gift of Self,” Fr. Bob Connor has asked that we do some additional reading. Here then, is our “assignment” in preparation for his talk on February 21st:

From the book, Love and Responsibility:

• The section “Betrothed Love” (pages 95-100)

From the Pope's “Original Unity of Man and Woman”:

• Meaning of Man's Original Solitude
• Man's Awareness of Being a Person
• By the Communion of Persons Man Becomes the Image of God
• The Nuptial Meaning of the Body
• The Human Person Becomes a Gift in the Freedom of Love
• Man and Woman: A Gift for Each Other

Two important Church documents that touch on the gift of self:

• Gaudium et Spes #24
• Dominum et Vivificantem (Lord and Giver of Life) #59

Then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla presented a paper on the philosophical underpinnings of the gift of self:

• The Personal Structure of Self-Determination

As an optional additional reading for those who really want to get into it, the Pope's book, The Acting Person, examines the role of the consciousness in the creation of the experience of the “I” in the act of self-determination to become gift—or not become gift:

• Optional additional reading from The Acting Person

For those who prefer an easy-to-print version of these assignments, I have collected these readings on two separate web pages:

• Easy-to-print version of additional readings
• Easy-to-print version of optional reading from The Acting Person