Giving of ourselves to others: Every human being experiences a desire to affirm themselves; to affirm the meaning and purpose of their own lives, to affirm their own worth and dignity in the face of experiences that seem to undermine or deny this. Everybody wants to be cherished and loved. From a Catholic perspective, it is through loving, through making a gift of ourselves, that we find ourselves. Whilst it might seem logical that our identities would be most affirmed by selfish or self-interested behaviour, we find to the contrary that our identities, our sense of ourselves as a person with meaning and purpose in life, are most often discovered and affirmed when we are selfless; when we make a gift of ourselves in the service of others and their flourishing.