Family as the Special Place for Shaping the Attitude of Love

Abstract

The article, taking into account the essence of love and its meaning for personal development, explains the diversity of forms of love and indicates that the attitude of love is based upon kindliness, goodness, forgiveness, tolerance, overcoming weakness and upon hope. The attitude of love is geared to creation of good, waiving offences and drawing conclusions from every difficult or unpleasant situation. Thanks to love a man transgress himself, his world grows and he develops himself spiritually. The paper also emphasizes that the ability to love and the need of love are one of the deepest, most primal human needs and the transmission of feelings of love on different stages of human's development, starting from childhood, is the most common human experience.

The carried out analysis also stresses that the process of the upbringing to love cannot be left to its fate, but to loving and correctly formed family. The author of the paper, making use of many years’ standing research on the legacy of John Paul II, outlines his understanding of love and tasks that arise from the relation to this important value and attitude, for married couples and families. The parenthood and upbringing are depicted as the communio personarum and family as the place of upbringing to love and live in the community of persons. Writing about types and the essence of love author apart from Karol Wojtyła, quotes views of other thinkers: St. Thomas, rev. F. Sawicki and contemporary philosopher G. Reale. She emphasizes that love is a personal relation that we learn in family. The article provides the detailed description of tasks for individual family members in the process of shaping the attitude of love and indicates on family as the most important and irreplaceable environment.