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.