Called & Gifted - Small Groups Forming Now!
At Baptism and Confirmation the Holy Spirit pours spiritual gifts into us. Some of these gifts are sanctifying gifts, meant for our own holiness; and some of these gifts are meant to manifest God's love and mercy to others. The catechism states Within the communion of the Church, the Holy Spirit "distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank" for the building up of the Church. (951) These special graces or gifts are called charisms. Our charisms give us a special empowerment to bring God's redeeming love into the world. We don't use our charisms for our own gain or betterment, only for God's purposes or to serve others.
Charisms bear three marks that allow us to recognize them with confidence.
- An unmistakable inner experience of peace, energy and joy when you are using this gift.
- Unusually effective and successful results in what you are trying to accomplish.
- Other people's direct or indirect recognition of the gift's presence.
Charisms are profoundly and directly connected to our relationship with God and grow in power and purity as our relationship with God grows. In other words, you cannot begin to discern your charisms until you have "dropped your nets" to follow Christ.
If you are curious to discover what your charisms might be, we are forming small groups to participate in Called & Gifted charism discernment through the Siena Institute. The discernment process consists of three parts:
- The Called and Gifted workshop, which lays the foundation for the beginning of discernment. During the 5-week workshop series the participants will take the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory.
- A one hour gifts interview, an invaluable part of the process.
- Discernment in the real world in which you will develop a charism experiment and evaluate your results
Access to the workshop materials, digital or print, needs to be purchased from the Catherine of Siena Institute at https://learning.siena.org/webstore/. You do not need to pay for a Gifts Interview since Vicki Compton has been trained to do this and will provide it to parishioners at no cost. If you are interested in discerning your charisms with a small group (social distancing respected) please contact Vicki at 217-522-3342 or [email protected].
For additional resources to assist you on your spiritual journey with Christ, please click here.