What is a charism? This term is very relevant and significant in our spiritual lives. Charisms are gifts from God that enable us to carry out specific functions with supernatural effectiveness. Understanding their definition and significance is crucial as we seek to deepen our relationship with God and build his Church.
The Nature of Charisms
God does not impose charisms upon individuals. Instead, God freely gives them in response to our openness and willingness to cooperate with His grace. God has bestowed unique talents and abilities upon every believer and charisms reflect this.
The Importance of Grace
To fully grasp the concept of charisms, we must first understand grace. God gives us grace to assist us in living according to his will. The surest way to receive grace is through the sacraments, though it comes in different forms. The Catholic Church emphasizes the seven sacraments, as they guarantee the reception of grace. Baptism is the initial entry point into a life of grace.
Receiving and Cooperating with Charisms
To receive and effectively use charisms, we must be in a state of grace. We must also actively seek a deep and intimate relationship with God. The sacrament of confession reinstates us into a state of grace and enables us to access our charisms once again. Additionally, we can cooperate with the charisms we’ve been give by seeking God and discerning his call in our lives.
Growing and Developing in Charisms
Specific moments or sacraments do not limit them in our lives. God gives them to us at any time and often without our knowledge or expectation. We must remain receptive to the Holy Spirit and actively seek ways to develop the use of our charisms.
Charisms are powerful gifts from God that enable us to participate in His divine plan for the Church. By understanding their significance, we open ourselves to a deeper relationship with God and actively cooperate with His grace. Let us embrace our charisms. May we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And let us use our gifts to bring about God’s love, mercy, and healing in the world.
Learn more at Many Parts Ministries.
Jill Simons [00:00:00]:
You. Hello and welcome to Charisms for Catholics. My name is Jill Simons and I’m the executive director at many parts ministries where we equip the body of Christ by helping people learn about and discern their charisms, which is really another word for spiritual gifts. When you discern your charisms, you’re able to see how the Holy Spirit is already active in your life and where he is inviting you to further build the church. Let’s dive in. Today we’re going to dive deep on a foundational question, which is essentially what is a charism? This is something that we obviously have to get straight before we can understand what they mean for Catholics and how we use them in our lives. So the definition of a charism essentially is a grace from God to be able to carry out a certain function with supernatural effectiveness. So there’s not a very clear kind of correlation to how we talk about charisms versus how we talk about other things.
Jill Simons [00:01:10]:
We tend to talk about grace in general, right? We talk about the grace we receive through the sacraments, sacramental sanctifying grace. And we don’t necessarily break it up into different kinds of grace very frequently. And so that’s what I’d like to do a little bit right now. Now this is sort of an artificial overlay on the nature of grace. And that helps us just as humans understand it, because basically grace is going to be sort of an unbroken fabric that we receive from God. We divide it up though, for us to understand it and know how to interact with it. And so an analogy that I think is really helpful is to think about different kinds of gifts. Like on Christmas morning under your tree, there is probably a variety of gifts.
Jill Simons [00:02:09]:
They are two different people, they’re different sizes, they’re wrapped in different papers, but they are unified in the fact that they are all gifts. And so that’s how I want to think about grace. All the graces that we receive are all gifts from God given freely based on our yes to receiving that grace in receiving the sacraments themselves. And this is something else that I want to point out is that grace is God’s to give. So he can give grace in whatever means, whatever way, whatever time that he wants. But we as human beings only know that grace comes through the sacrament. That’s the only surefire, this is always going to work way that grace can be transmitted. And that is why there is such an emphasis on the seven sacraments in the Catholic Church, because those are the seven ways that we receive grace, that we know you can go and be baptized and receive grace.
Jill Simons [00:03:15]:
We know that you can go and get married and receive grace. God can also give graces in other moments. And so that’s important for charisms, for you to recognize that that initial yes to God is necessary in baptism to sort of begin your walk with charisms. But then as you continue on, there can be charisms graces gifts given outside of just the seven sacraments when God decides to give it to you. So that’s not something you or I control, but it’s something that we can receive when we are actively, one, in a state of grace and two, open to receiving that from God. God can give those things to us. And so that’s why we see the beginning point of charisms for everybody is baptism is when they first say yes to that intimate relationship with God, but then we see more charisms potentially being given sort of maybe seemingly at random. It’s not like, oh, it’s your baptism and your confirmation and those are your two shots to get more charisms.
Jill Simons [00:04:26]:
And once you’re into your adult life and maybe settled in your vocation, you’re done and you can’t receive anything more or new. God can give us grace in any way and at any time he decrees we just don’t control that. I hope that that is a clear distinction for people that when we partake in the sacraments, this is something that God has said he jill always bring grace through, but that limits us, that doesn’t limit God. God is able to give grace in whatever way he chooses. So when we look at charisms, going back to that kind of Christmas morning analogy, charisms are a certain kind of grace that we receive both sacramentally. So definitely at your baptism, but also based on deepening and investing in your relationship with God. So this is something that can be given like a just because present as well. It doesn’t have to be only Christmas Day that you can receive a present from God that is a charism.
Jill Simons [00:05:35]:
You can also be surprised on a random day of the year because God wants to pour out his love and show you and remind you that he loves you and that you are cooperating with Him in using those gifts. So he wants to give you more back to that parable of the talents in the New Testament, where the people who use their gifts well use those talents well, which was actually a kind of money in the New Testament, which is I think it’s kind of a funny accident that it’s the same word that we use for natural aptitudes talents. The people that were given a lot are given even more when they steward it well. So this is what we see in our own lives with charisms. We definitely have received a charism or more when we are first receiving that sacramental grace of baptism. But we can also receive more charisms throughout our lives, both when we receive sacraments and when God decides to give them to us. And so that is why it’s important to remember again that the limitations are on us, they are not on God. We can’t come up with a new way to turn in a circle and click your tongue, that is going to make God give people grace.
Jill Simons [00:06:54]:
But we can always partake in those ways that God has already told us and shown us that he does transmit grace, which is of course the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. And so when we are living that vibrant sacramental life, receiving the grace of confession regularly, regularly receiving the charism, regularly investing in our marriage, renewing our baptismal promises, those things keep us open to grace in our lives as a whole. And so then that brings up kind of a second question that a lot of people ask is, can your charisms be taken away? Let’s say that you are baptized and you maybe fall away from the church or join a different church without a teaching on charisms or something like that, where this doesn’t become something that you intentionally pursue anymore. The answer is that God doesn’t necessarily take them away, but you can lose access to them. You can be in a state outside of grace. So that’s what we go to confession for, right? If you are in a state of sin, you’re outside of grace. That’s why you need to go to confession and be reinstated into a state of grace. When you’re out of a state of grace, your charisms haven’t been taken away, but you might have lost your ability to access them because you are not actively cooperating with grace in your life.
Jill Simons [00:08:20]:
Charisms are not something that God is going to come in and use in your life in spite of you. There might be moments where you’re in a state of grace and you’re not necessarily aware that you are using your charisms, but you are still the one acting, you’re still using your free will. And the Holy Spirit is coming along and augmenting that action through your charism in that supernatural way. But he’s not going to come and force you to open your mouth and encourage this person when you have no intention of doing it. This isn’t something that he’s going to override your own free will to get you to do. And so if you’re not in a state of grace, it’s very unlikely that you would have any awareness of his motions in your heart and your life to invite you into these opportunities to use your charisms. There would just be a real natural blockage to grace flowing in your life because obviously you’re not in a state of grace. And so this affects Catholics and non Catholics when we need to go to confession, basically, when we have committed a mortal sin and are away from the grace of God, outside of his mercy and love, we’re not going to be able to walk and operate in these charisms in the same way we could when we are in close friendship with Him.
Jill Simons [00:09:40]:
So this is just another one of the many reasons that it’s always important to be pursuing a state of grace to be availing yourself of the sacrament of confession and just remaining in intimate relationship with God, not just avoiding sin, but actively seeking God, seeking closeness with Him and seeking to know and hear Him more. Because the more docile and aware we are of his voice and what it’s calling us to do, the more we are able to actively choose to cooperate with our charisms and what the Holy Spirit is inviting us to do in the Church. Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode of Charism for Catholics. If you would like to learn more about your charisms or begin your own discernment journey, head to our website@manypartsministries.com where you can download our free PDF guide to all 24 charisms and also begin your own journey by taking our Charism Assessment.
