Good evening … it’s a balmy (no kidding, it’s 67 and it’s 5:45 pm!) February evening here in the Old Dominion and I’ve had a hectic but interesting weekend.
Friday evening and all day Saturday, I attended a Called and Gifted Workshop. This workshop, led by Colorado-based Catherine of Siena Institute and sponsored by a nearby parish, are created to help the laity understand their charisms (gifts for you to use for others) in order to help the Parish run a little better. Dh came with me for the Friday night portion and I sat thru the full Saturday workshop thoroughly reveling in the fact that I’m a Catholic and THAT is a very cool thing!
One of the main components of the weekend-long workshop is completing an inventory, an inventory of spiritual gifts in order to starting discerning what each of us is called, by God, to do for His Kingdom. Because the inventory is self-completed, the “answers” are more provocative than diagnostic. But mine were pretty much spot-on …. which may be why I do what I do (homeschooling mom, active parishioner, support staff for a growing Catholic high school, knit wear designer). Honestly, here are my results for my top charisms, gifts from the Holy Spirit that I need to share with others.
The first three are my “top 3” … those that I got 14 out of 15 points on:
- administrative – the charism which allows for the planning and coordination needed to accomplish good things
- faith – the charism that is an eefective agent of God’s purposes thru and unusual trust in the love, power and provision of Gad and a remarkable freedom to act on this trust
- writing – the charism that uses words to create works of truth or beauty that reflects the fullness of human experience and brings glory to God
The next three were:
- service (13) – the charism which allows for recognizing the gaps or unmet needs that prevent good things from happening and personally doing whatever is need to bridge that gap
- craftmanship (12) – the charism which allows for showing God’s goodness thru artistic or creative ways (I know … right?)
- encouragement (12) – the charism which nurtures others thru my presence and words of comfort, encouragement and counsel
If you know me … or have read me here for a while … you probably realize these six charisms are spot on. This inventory was amazing … and the ones that I scored very low on … those were spot on too!
Now, the leader (a Deacon from Tucson, AZ) did mention that extroverts (of which I am definitely one) tend to over-state their giftedness. This would account for my top ones having such high scores (always out of 15) and my low ones being zeroes or ones.
But still ….
All I know is that this discernment workshop was a wonderful chance to think about what I can do to bring more folks into the Kingdom … to take the talents and gifts God has provided and share them with others.
Awesome!
Leave A Comment