2009

2009:   Lifestyle - Classic and innovative

The beginnings of the family and therefore work in the home are rooted in the origins of mankind itself. In recent years, the technology of the home has developed rapidly. Its progress, however, may be driven by an excessive desire for control or comfort, rather than directed towards the service and care of the human person.  

Therefore, taking as our point of reference the fact that work in the home is always necessary for the integral development of the person, our task is to reflect the synergy brought about by technology, and the innovations it has introduced into the service sector. At the same time, we need to discover how at present these two aspects are closely connected, but not always in a balanced way.  

The concepts "classic" and "innovative" are applicable to work in the home; St. Josemaría said: "All professional work demands previous training and a constant effort to improve one's formation and to adapt it to the new circumstances that may arise. And this is very especially true for those who aspire to occupy leading positions in society, because they are called to a very important service on which the entire community's well-being depends."[1]

Work in the home can be considered "classic", since it is orientated directly towards the service of the person, and "innovative", since it requires a high degree of training, constantly updated.   Our current challenge is to reconcile these two apparently contrasting terms: to see how the true goal and foundation of all technological progress relating to work in the home has to be the service of the human person. Advances and innovations within the scope of the family enable a genuinely human lifestyle to be outlined; a lifestyle based on and orientated to the service of the person, and which takes new forms according to the needs of society.

[1] St. Josemaría, Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer, 1968, no. 90