Called & Gifted Small Groups at St. Monica

The Called & Gifted™ is a Discernment Process has been used since 1993 by over 100,000 lay, ordained, and religious Catholics and other Christians around the world. It is designed to help Christians discern the presence of charisms in their lives. St. Monica will be incorporating a “Small Group” format in the Called and Gifted process.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Charisms, or spiritual gifts, are special abilities given to all Christians by the Holy Spirit to give them power both to represent Christ and to be a channel of God's goodness for people. Whether extraordinary or ordinary, all charisms ought to be exercised in the service of God

There are several steps in the Called and Gifted “Small Groups” process:

Step 1: If you are  chosen as a designated participant, you will be given information to take the “Spiritual Gifts Inventory” on-line. The Inventory IS NOT discernment of charisms! It is merely a tool to help you begin to “tease out” what you charisms might be.

Step 2: One hour, one-on-one gifts interview. This is an invaluable part of the process. Experienced, Catherine of Siena Institute-trained gifts interviewers are available by phone. The. interviewer can help you:

• look at your Spiritual GiftsInventory results
• listen to your experiences of being used by God
• recognize patterns in your life that may indicate the presence of a charism
• choose one charism to discern
• find a way to "experiment" with that gift in the context of your real life
• answer your personal questions about specific charisms or discernment

• 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.

The Small Group Sessions will take place from 1:00-3:00pm on the following dates: February 16th, March 15th, April 5th, May 3rd and May 17th.

Step 4:  You need to choose one charism on which you wish to focus.  Then, over the course of the next few weeks, try to utilize your charism in your day-to-day life. 

Step 5: Sharing the experience and feedback:  Share your experiences with the small group. With the guidance of your Small Group Moderator, and in discussion with the other members of your small group, each month you will be taught how to:

* develop charism experiments
* evaluate your results
* identify ways you learned to control life as a child that might get in the way of using your charisms as an adult.
 

All  parts of the process are necessary for discovering where you are truly gifted. 5 sessions are currently scheduled. It is anticipated that additional sessions might be necessary to fully discern your charisms. The first 5 sessions are mandatory. YOU MUST ATTEND ALL 5 SESSIONS for the process to be effective.