Chris Whiteley reflects on his experience at the Called and Gifted Workshop
The Holy Spirit is a master of what he does.
Let me explain.
On Thursday Jan 11th I had wondered if my date of birth shared the feast day of any popular saint. I fired up my laptop and did a Google search that would change my life forever.
Saint Catherine of Siena - this was the saint my date of birth shared a feast day with.
A few hours later, in a passing conversation someone mentioned Saint Catherine of Siena. The conversation went by very quickly as I was dumbfounded at Saint Catherine being presented to me twice in one day.
A Coincidence? No - the work of the Holy Spirit. I was supposed to pay attention to this conversation.
The conversation was regarding the Called and Gifted workshop being offered by the Catherine of Siena Institute. What I gathered from the conversation was that this workshop would help someone determine their charisms, and how they can best serve God using their charism.
This conversation was extremely important.
Over the past year I had been really struggling to figure out what God wanted me to do with my gifts, talents, and time. Every time I thought I was close to figuring things out, more questions appeared, and I felt more distant from my mission.
Everything changed with the Called and Gifted workshop.
My experience at the Called and Gifted workshop was one of tears, love, and revelation.
In preparation for the workshop, I completed a "Spiritual Gifts Inventory" which was a series of questions that help determine what your charisms are, and how you can best serve God's Kingdom.
The survey was wrong. All wrong.
I scored very low in all the categories in which I thought my strengths were and scored very high in places where I felt I needed a lot of improvement.
Despite my feeling of the survey being wrong, I did not retake it. I had to trust the process.
On the day of the workshop, I sat at the back. I knew a few people, but I wanted to make sure I was not distracted at all. The Holy Spirit sent me here for a reason, so I had to focus.
The workshop presentation was split between Sherry Weddell and Katherine Coolidge, who were the main members of the Catherine of Siena leadership team. They spent the first portion of the workshop explaining the difference between a charism and a natural talent. In short, a charism is meant for others, while a natural talent for you.
I was starting to understand why I felt my gift inventory seemed flawed.
The next portion of the workshop was going through and learning about each charism in great detail.
For each charism the group was presented with:
* a working definition of the charism
* a personal story or anecdote about the charism
* a saint that had this charism
* occupations in the secular world where these charisms may be present
* positions within the Church or family life where these charisms are best served
Each time one of my top 5 charisms was presented, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I felt that tingly, comforting feeling of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I felt at peace.
Over the course of the workshop, it was revealed to me that I didn't need to be searching for how to use my gifts to better serve God. He had already put me in places where I was using the charisms that I previously knew nothing about.
I realized that when I was previously searching for how I could serve God, I was trying to figure out how I could serve God using my rules, my wants and my will.
It turned out that while I was swimming against the current of His Will, he had already passively, and secretly put me exactly where he wanted me.
I no longer disagreed with the outcome of the "Spiritual Gifts Inventory."
At the lunch break I took a moment to share this revelation with the facilitators. I'm not sure how successful I was. In my memory of the moment, I feel like all I did was say "Thank you" and then stood there and cried tears of joy.
My life was changed that day.
I believe that these types of world class events are critical for transforming and strengthening our Catholic Church. Not only do they strengthen our community, but they help us keep walking forward in a world that is moving backwards and pushing us back with it.