Volunteering as an Instrument for Preparing Young People for Christian Marriage and Family Life

Abstract

Volunteering is an organized service for people and social groups in need, characterized by selflessness, voluntariness, and regularity. The roots of modern volunteering should be sought in various forms of social commitment and charity activities already existing in the circle of Christian culture in antiquity. Contemporary volunteering is one of the important segments of civil society, which is why it develops well in democratic countries. In totalitarian states, it has no raison d’être, because the necessary condition for its development is the social space of freedom. The aim of this work is to seek an answer to the question: how can the involvement of young people in volunteering contribute to their good preparation for life in a Christian marriage and family? The article is theoretical and falls within the field of practical theology. The author will use the method of secondary analysis of available materials in the fields of philosophy, social sciences, and Catholic theology in order to show the relationship between the involvement of young people in volunteering and good preparation for future tasks of Christian spouses and parents. The starting point of the search will be a presentation of the current condition of marriages and families in Europe. The next step in the research process will be the presentation of the review-focused research methodology, and in the final part of the article, the advantages of volunteering as an instrument of preparing young people to take up the future tasks of spouses and parents will be emphasized.