Called and Gifted Workshop
Great Park Pastoral Area
Saint Joseph’s Parish Centre Maidenhead – 20/21 March 2015
What is the Called and Gifted Programme?
The Called & Gifted™ Discernment Process is the best known offering of the Catherine of Seinna Institute and has been used since 1993 by over 75,000 lay, ordained, and religious Catholics and other Christians around the world.The Called & Gifted™ process is designed to help Christians discern the presence of charisms in their life. For a basic introduction to charisms, visit Charisms FAQ.
The Called & Gifted™ is a three part discernment process intended to help lay Catholics discern their charisms. All three parts of the process are necessary to determine where you are gifted. Part one is the Called and Gifted workshop, this workshop lays the foundation for the beginning of discernment. Part two is the One Hour Gifts interview, this is an invaluable part of the process. Part three, the substance of the discernment process. These final steps will teach you how to develop charism experiments and how to evaluate your results. The last part of this process will teach you how to identify ways you learned to control life as a child that get in the way of using your charisms as an adult
Step One: Go through the Called & Gifted™ introductory workshop.
Those who take the Called & Gifted™workshop will take the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory, the first gifts inventory designed especially for Catholics.
At a Called & Gifted™workshop, you will learn:
• The role of every Catholic and of the local parish in the mission of the Church to the world.
• The critical role of charisms in the life and service of other lay Catholics and in the life of the parish or Christian community.
• The signs and characteristics of 24 common charisms.
• How discerning and using your charisms can change your life and the life of others, your parish, and the world.
Step Two: After going through the introductory Called & Gifted workshop and taking the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory, the second step is to have a one hour personal gifts interview.
Your interviewer will help you look at your inventory results, listen to your experiences of being used by God, and help you recognize patterns in your life that may indicate the presence of a charism. She or he will also help you choose one charism to discern and help you determine how you can best “experiment” with that gift in the context of your real life. Your interviewer will also seek to answer any personal questions about specific charisms or discernment that you may have.
An interview will last one hour. You will need to have your copy of the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory and your answer sheet available at the beginning of your phone interview.
Before your interview, please read the short article below.
Link: What to Expect from an Interview
Step Three: Going through the initial workshop and having an interview is all preparation for the third step: Discernment in Depth.
The discernment in depth part two can only be done on your own or in a small group. The five session small group version of the Discernment in Depth process with a Leader’s Guide, Participant Guide, Resource Guide, the Discerning Charisms Workbook, prayer and discussion questions, mix, discerning personal vocation, and collaboration between the clergy and laity.
During the discernment in depth process, you will practice what you have learned about discernment. You will pick one charism to “experiment with” two hours a week for a minimum of 6 – 8 weeks – and see what God does! What is your personal experience, what kind of feedback do you receive from others, and most importantly, what happens when you engage in the activity in question? When you take action in that area, what does God do?