| Called & Gifted |
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The Called & Gifted™ Discernment Process is our best known offering and has been used since 1993 by over 55,000 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 our Charisms FAQ. The Called & Gifted™ is a three part discernment process intended to help ordinary lay Catholics in the average parish discern their charisms. The Called & Gifted process presumes no knowledge of the gifts or background in discernment.
Step One: Go through the Called & Gifted™ introductory workshop. Those who take the Called & Gifted™ workshop have a chance to take the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory, the first gifts inventory designed especially for Catholics. They will also have the chance to begin discerning their charisms. At a Called & Gifted™ workshop, you will learn: To find a live Called & Gifted™ workshop near you, simply click on the Upcoming Workshops link below. To register for a workshop, call or e-mail the contact listed for the particular workshop which you plan to attend.
If you are interested in bringing the Called & Gifted™ introductory workshop to your parish or community, click on the link below to go to a different section of our website. How can I bring the Called & Gifted discernment process to my community? We have versions of the Called & Gifted™ introductory workshop available for parish and diocesan staff, Catholic school teachers, DREs and catechists, diocesan priests, seminarians, religious congregations, and young adults/campus ministry as well as for average lay Catholics in a parish setting. For more information about these specialized versions, please contact Austin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Austin at (719) 219-0056 or (888) 878-6789.
If you can't attend a live Called & Gifted™ introductory workshop You can still begin your discernment process right now! By listening to the workshop (recorded live) on CD and taking the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory by yourself. (Both listening to the CD and taking the inventory are necessary to replicate the experience of a live workshop.) You don't have to discern alone! You can also discern with a group of friends or fellow parishioners! The entire Called & Gifted discernment process is available in a small group format in which you can cover the content of a live workshop in 5 small group sessions.
Step Two: After going through the introductory Called & Gifted workshop (either live or on CD) and taking the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory, the second step is to have a one hour personal gifts interview. We have trained over 2,000 pastoral leaders to conduct interviews so there may be trained interviewers in your parish, area, or diocese. If not, CSI trained and experienced gifts interviewers are available by phone. 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 who 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 usually lasts 1- 1 1/4 hours. There is a $35.00 fee for a phone interview as we pay our interviewers a honorarium for their time and skill. 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. Link: I would like a personal gifts interview. Before your phone 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. 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? The Discernment in Depth process has both an individual and a small group component. You will "experiment" with your chosen gift for a couple of weeks and then met in a small group with others who are also discerning and talk about your experience. Then you go out again and experiment for another couple of weeks and then come back together and talk about it. Two to four weeks into this process, many people start to recognize patterns in their life that have been present for years but they had never recognized before. The Discerning Charisms Workbook was written to support individuals and small groups of friends or parishioners who want to go through the Discernment in Depth journey together. The Workbook outlines how to develop an experiment, how to evaluate your results, three small group sessions, and also contains the enormously valuable Key to the Charisms, a short hand guide to the common experiences and signs of the 24 charisms covered in the Called & Gifted process. There is also a five session small group version of the Discernment in Depth process with a Leader's Guide, Participant's Guides, the Discerning Charisms Workbook, prayer and discussion questions, and 3 CDs of original presentations on gifts mix, discerning personal vocation, collaboration between the clergy and laity, and how to identify ways you learned to control life as a child that get in the way of using your charisms as an adult.
Want to Introduce Others to the Idea of Discerning Charisms? We have a number of compelling, high energy introductions to the discernment process that leave people engaged and eager for more! A Taste of Called & Gifted (High energy one hour introduction to the Called & Gifted process. Designed for a lay audience. Suitable for parish audiences, diocesan, catechetical or other conferences.) There is No Such Thing as Vocational Unemployment (Fun, practical, 1 ½ hour talk on how to discern personal vocation drawn from the C & G extended discernment process. Designed for a lay audience. Perfect for parishes, diocesan, catechetical or other conferences.) How Fostering Discernment in Your Parish Will Change Your Life and the Life of the World (1 ¼ hour introduction to the practice and life-changing impact of fostering the discernment of charisms in our parishes: on lay men and women, leaders, the parish community as a whole, and the world. For pastoral leaders at any level. Great for stewardship, faith formation, evangelization, catechetical events or leadership gatherings or conferences.) The Pastoral Office, Governance, and Facilitating the Discernment of all the Baptized (A 2 hour introduction to the theology and practice of governance and discernment for clergy, seminarians, diocesan and parish staff and leaders. Suitable for seminaries, clergy convocations and continuing education, diocesan and parish staff formation, leadership conferences.
Want to Learn How to Help Others Discern? Interviewer and facilitator training takes place around the country as groups request it. For a basic introduction to the training process for individuals, read the article below. Link: Becoming a Called & Gifted™ Interviewer/Facilitator Link: Upcoming Interviewer/Faciliator Trainings For more information, please contact Austin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Austin at (719) 219-0056 or (888) 878-6789.
Would you like to have a team in your parish or diocese trained to help your people discern their gifts? A minimum of 10 and a maximum of 30 trainees are required to schedule a training. For a description of the prerequisites, please read Becoming a Called & Gifted™ Interviewer/Faciliator. Interviewer training usually begins on Friday at 7 pm and ends the next day, Saturday, at 8:30 pm. The cost of the training is $100/per person (which includes extensive reference materials) as well as the plane fare and board and room for one trainer. In addition to local trainees, people from other states and from all around the country may be interested in attending a training that you host. For more information or to schedule an interviewer training, please contact Austin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Austin at (719) 219-0056 or (888) 878-6789.
Interested in becoming one of our traveling Called & Gifted™ teachers? We have a special need for bi-linqual Hispanic teachers who can learn to teach the initial workshop in Spanish. Prayerfully consider joining our dynamic current team of 20+ traveling teachers. For more information about becoming a Called & Gifted™ teacher yourself or how to establish a local teaching team in your area, read the description of the training process below. Link: Becoming a Called & Gifted Teacher After reading the description of the training process, feel free to contact Austin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call her at (719) 219 - 0056 or (888) 878 - 6789.
Developing your own local Called & Gifted teaching team. Local teaching teams are popping up in parishes and dioceses all over the country - and the world: Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Orange, Los Angeles, Boise, Chicago, Houston, Tucson, Des Moines, Dubuque, Memphis, Melbourne, Canberra, and Singapore. Why not in your parish or community? These teams offer the Called & Gifted™ workshop in local parishes one or two times a year. In addition, some teams put on workshops for other interested parishes in their city, region, or state on the behalf of the Institute. To explore this possibility further, contact Austin at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call her at (719) 219 - 0056 or (888) 878 - 6789. Called & Gifted™ Teacher Training is offered upon request and runs Friday night through Sunday afternoon. There are a number of pre-requisites for teachers in training. For an outline of the training process, read Becoming a Called & Gifted Teacher.
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