How important is charisma in modern society? The experience of an educational portal, Lafamilia.info

We had the pleasure of interviewing Natalia Posada Greiffenstein, editorial manager of the
Colombian educational portal LaFamilia.info.

Natalia, Pope Francis in a general audience a few years ago, dedicated
to charisms in the Church, said that the charismatic person is the one
who has received a gift from grace, a gift that must be put forth as a
service to all. Although the Pope refers to ecclesial institutions, the
judgment also applies in a broader sense to every association that
wants to serve the common good by means of a mission or by good use of
a talent. How much do you recognize yourself in this sentence?

Pope Francis is completely right. Charisma is a gift of grace, and those
who receive it must make it available to their community. It was this same
idea that inspired the founders of our LaFamilia.info
portal in 2004, driven by John Paul II’s urging to Catholics to take the
new evangelization of society to heart. Developing an editorial project to
support the family, which is the basis of society, seemed to us the best
way to concretely fulfill John Paul II’s invitation.

LaFamiglia.info
has been designed to help form luminous, joyful and united families,
offering tools to facilitate the solidity of the bond between a husband and
wife, the education of children, and personal growth based on the formation
of character and virtues. Our editorial project helps hundreds of families
overcome the difficulties of everyday life, this is our charisma, our gift,
which we are proud of because it is not easy to remain faithful to our
commitments for such a long time.

A great job, really. However any institution over time runs the risk of
losing this “fire” that I now sense from you. In fact, the management
of everyday life risks normalizing one’s own mission and lessening the
initial spirit. The danger is to lose creativity and ideas, stop
producing content to become simple incubators of processes, bureaucracy
and relationships. How can you avoid all this and keep a proper
balance? Can you still be alive and creative in the production of
ideas, contents and solutions for the community to which you refer
after so many years?

Our goal is to continue to maintain the initial spirit, the sacred fire of
our origins – as you rightly define it – to always be creative and
functional in our mission. Routine and habit can certainly become
obstacles, which is why we have to reinvent ourselves every day, always
finding something “new”. For example, social networks allow us to be more
dynamic and to interact continuously with our readers. Our audience’s
comments help us to verify daily if and how our mission is welcomed and
valued, if we are in line with our community, and if we are doing our job
well.

Among the main tasks of a leader, there is certainly that of motivating
and training young people, not only from the point of view of technical
preparation, but also in the transmission of the mission, values and
convictions. What is your idea of formation?

We train parents so that they can educate their children. On LaFamilia.info we offer content that helps parents to
educate their children from an early age on the basis of values that will
be decisive for their adult life. Our basic idea is to educate leaving
autonomy to children, to instill in them the sense of responsibility,
integrity, self-esteem and respect. In this way we prepare them to be free
and responsible from an early age, so that they know how to face the adult
world and real life.

Is there a something in the works?

Of course! The dream is the same that gave birth to the LaFamiglia.info project, that is to form luminous and
happy families. In pursuing this dream we are driven to spread our reach.
Every day we hope to reach more and more people, sharing our charism with
people all over the world, because we are convinced that the family is at
the base of society, because it molds the men and women of tomorrow… and
today. The family does not end when the children have grown up. Even when
parents become older, they continue to educate their children, with their
experience and wisdom, and vice versa, children help their parents with
their affection. There is a sort of generational relay, which is at the
base of humanity. On this humanity, warm and full of feelings, we want to
aim and continue to believe.

Natalia Posada Greiffenstein

Colombian, wife, mom and passionate about family matters and education. She
is an expert in organizational communication. Since 2009 she has been the
editorial manager of the educational web portal LaFamilia.info.