We are excited during the Jubilee Year to launch the Called & Gifted Discernment Process in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

The process is designed to help Christians discern the presence of charisms in their lives. 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.

Discerning charisms communally enables parishes to thrive on the gifts of its people. Far from being “just another program”, this is a whole new way to look at our parishes. When charisms are discerned and understood, community members feel empowered, valued and they develop a sense of belonging.

The Called & Gifted™ Discernment Process has been used since 1993 by over 200,000 lay, ordained, and religious Catholics and other Christians around the world and has been incredibly successful in a number of Catholic Dioceses across Australia. The Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry will release a national statement on charisms in coming months re-enforcing our Diocesan commitment to mission and evangelisation into the future.

Mission & Evangelisation is working directly with the Catherine of Siena Institute to offer the Called & Gifted Discernment Process this year. The process will be facilitated online by professionally trained practitioners based in the USA. In the future, a home-grown team will be trained to lead the process face-to-face at a local level.

The process is broken into three sections:

Part One: During the Called & Gifted™ workshop, you will take the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory. (4 Tuesday evenings 10 June – 1 July 7.30pm-9.00pm)
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.

Part 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.
Experienced, CSI-trained gifts interviewers can help you:

• Look at your inventory results
• Listen to your experiences of being used by God
• Recognise 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

Part Three: Discernment in Depth (4 Tuesday evenings 29 July – 9 September 7.30pm-9.00pm)

• Going through the initial workshop and having an interview is all preparation for the real work of discernment. This can be done on your own or in a small group.
• You will now put into 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!
• There will be opportunities to share your reflections with others.

This will be a significant investment in the people of our Diocese as we grow our confidence in living and sharing our faith with others. Clergy too are strongly encouraged to participate. This is a unique opportunity to journey together as a Diocese and will begin following Pentecost. It is critical that participants are aware of, and fully commit to, the three-part process that involves workshops, a personal interview and in-depth sessions about using our gifts in the world. We will seek to bring the full cohort together face-to-face for reflection a couple of times along the way.

For more information and to express your interest, go to: https://mn.catholic.org.au/event/register-for-the-called-gifted-program/