Applications for the Archdiocese’s next Called and Gifted intake close this week.
Every baptised Catholic has been given a gift by the Holy Spirit and it was never meant for them alone.
That conviction has shaped nearly three decades of work for Sherry Weddell, co-founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, creator of the Called and Gifted discernment process and author of Forming Intentional Disciples work that has reached more than 1000 parishes across 230 dioceses and helped some 300,000 Catholics name their spiritual gifts.
Speaking to The Catholic Weekly, Weddell began where she always begins, by clearing away what a charism is not.
“They’re not talents. They’re not skills. They’re not personality traits,” she said. “Those are good things God uses everything we have. But the charisms are something else. The Church calls them gratuitous graces: ways that you and I are empowered by God to be instruments of his redemptive purposes, his healing, his mercy, his wisdom, for others.”
Intercessory prayer. Teaching. Evangelisation. Administration. Music. Mercy. Hands-on service to those who suffer. The list is long, and none of it belongs to the person who carries it.
“God gives them to us so they pass through us into that other person’s life,” she said. “You have an impact for the kingdom of God that goes beyond your natural abilities.”
There is a second surprise waiting for those who find theirs. “They are also very nourishing to exercise,” she said. “It feels like you’re in prayer. It feels like you’re where you’re supposed to be, and you didn’t know it.”
The Called & Gifted Discernment Process is being offered exclusively for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, inviting clergy, religious, and lay faithful to gather to discern their charisms, with the Catherine of Siena Institute’s Called & Gifted Discernment Process.
The process is designed to help Christians discern the presence of charisms in their lives.
Participants attend the workshop, complete an inventory, then sit down one-to-one with a trained team member who listens to the stories of their lives for the fingerprints of God.
“We never tell you that you do or do not have a charism. That’s your job. God’s calling you, and you’re the one who has to say yes or no,” Weddell said. Instead, participants choose one possible charism and test it, at least two hours a week, meeting fortnightly to talk about what God did when they took action.
For anyone curious but hesitant, her message is simple.
“You won’t be embarrassed. We’re not diagnosing you. We’re not critiquing you,” she said. “The ordinary layperson is never supported at the parish level as an apostle — as someone whom God is sending to somebody else on his behalf. This is that support.”
There are, she is certain, people waiting for what you have been given to give.
Applications for Called and Gifted close this Thursday 10 September.
For more information contact the Parish Renewal Team at parishrenewal@sydneycatholic.org
