“We live in a world of lies and it is easy to let ourselves be dragged through appearances, by a momentary success or by an absurd coincidence at times, but there is always the word of God that arrives, there is always an encounter that defines us, there is always a reality that is worth following, and this is the grace of freedom. I am not like a banner in the wind, I am a person who uses her will, uses her intelligence, uses her life, to affirm the profound freedom of Being and living, and it is beautiful, beautiful.” Mother Cristiana Piccardo.

As I have mentioned in all possible media and moments, the origin of Trabajo y Persona is intimately related to my friendship with Mother Cristiana Piccardo. I met her when she was 75 and I was shocked by how she conveyed the value of the transcendent and contingent through the Benedictine Ora et Labora rule. When I started Trabajo y Persona she was 84 years old, and in this month of September, in which she turned 94, I would like to dedicate this editorial for you to know some of her reflections on meetings that we have had:

“Man easily regards work, human fatigue as an inevitable condemnation and forgets that work is the way through which man is realized and expressed.”

“Work, whatever it is, if it is taken with full responsibility, is the great dignity of man. It is not of great importance whether it is professional, worker or domestic work but the form, attention, dedication with which it is done”. 

“It’s the little things that build a destiny.”

“Work is fruitful if it is an expression of collaboration, of compenetration, of communion: one cannot work together if the work done by others is not recognized, if the work of the other is not valued, even if unskilled. We depend on each other.”

“In these times when people make so many protests, I think that the greatest impact you make yourself, because you are proposing training to people, an education at work, a prominence that means humanity, responsibility, dignity of man , freedom of man, and this is a very big thing.”