Finding Your Joy, Part 2: Charisms
In last week’s article, “Finding Your Joy, Part 1: Releasing Yourself from Functional Freeze” I described how it feels to be stuck in the “freeze” response trauma, while at the same time functioning on what looks like a normal level. I then provided several tips on how to begin thawing from function freeze, and promised to elaborate further on how to heal from traumatic wounds.
One of the best ways to permanently move from a nearly constant state of functional freeze and into a more healthy space is to discover your charisms and seek to develop them in the way God intended. As I’m always telling my clients, “Do what makes your soul sing.” Erase everything in your soul that is not of God—the lies from gaslighting, the doubts, the fear that immobilizes you. This creates the soul space to develop your unique talents—the charisms God has given to you for His glory, the benefit of others, and for your inner life to blossom and thrive.
What is a Charism?
The Holy Spirit has bestowed upon each and every baptized Christian at least one special charism—and often more. Recognizing them and investing them wisely, as God wills (Matt. 25:14-30), is key to healing and regaining your true, authentic self.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom: and to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit. To another, faith in the same Spirit: to another, the grace of healing in one Spirit: To another, the working of miracles: to another, prophecy: to another, the discerning of spirits: to another, divers kinds of tongues: to another, interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as He will.
(I Cor. 12:7-11, Douay-Rheims translation)
Living within your charisms is living within your God-given strengths. Your supernatural gifts build character—the unique character God designed for you—and empowers you to be who you ought to be. When God’s special gifts are the solid foundation of your life, the newfound inner strength stretches outward, helping you gain confidence and clarity in all areas of your life. Recapturing a sense of self after being in the throes of gaslighting, coercion, manipulation and other forms of mistreatment means realizing who God created you to be—and where He wants you to go from this point forward.
Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is called a gift; for by the word gift we understand that which is kindly and gratuitously bestowed … Whatever gifts and graces, therefore, have been conferred on us by God … we should piously and gratefully acknowledge as bestowed by the grace and gift of the Holy Ghost. These gifts of the Holy Ghost are numerous.
Charisms are graces given to us for the benefit of not only our own spiritual journey and self-growth, but primarily for the benefit of the Church as well as others. No one has all the charisms, but only those specific to their individual soul. As God the Father told St. Catherine of Siena (regarding virtues, but the same applies to charisms):
Why do I give this person one virtue and that person another, rather than giving them all to one person? I give them in different ways so that one virtue might be, as it were, the source of all the others. So to one person I give charity as the primary virtue, to another justice, to another humility, to another a lively faith or prudence or temperance or patience, and to still another courage. These and many other virtues I give differently to different souls, and the soul is most at ease with that virtue which has been made primary for her … The same is true of many of My gifts and graces, virtue and other spiritual gifts, and those things necessary for the body and human life. I have distributed them all in such a way that no one has all of them. Thus I have given you reason—necessity, in fact—to practice mutual charity. For I could well have supplied each of you with all your needs, both spiritual and material. But I wanted to make you dependent on one another so that each of you would be My minister, dispensing the graces and gifts you have received from Me.
(Dialogue 7)
While there’s no official list of charisms, the most widely acknowledged are:
Administration
Celibacy
Craftsmanship
Discernment
Encouragement
Evangelization
Faith
Giving
Healing
Helper
Hospitality
Intercessory Prayer
Knowledge
Leadership
Mercy
Missionary
Music
Pastoring
Prophecy
Service
Teaching
Tongues
Voluntary Poverty
Wisdom
Writing
If your main charism—or charisms—are already developed, you may be able to look at that list and discern which areas have been gifted to you. For example, the charism of writing is an obvious one for me, while others may be less clear.
I highly recommend taking the charism assessment from Many Parts Ministries if you’re interested in developing the gifts God has given your individual soul. Jill Simons’ book The Essential Handbook on Living Your Charisms: A Practical Guide for Catholics is also recommended.
Discerning your charisms—and then developing them through various ways such as prayer, spiritual direction, coaching, education, and action—is one the most important ways of regaining your sense of self after trauma or abuse. Not only will you become empowered to be of service to your inner truth as well as to others, you’ll gain a mastery of self-knowledge and a clearer ability to see yourself as God made you—in the beauty of His image and likeness. Developing your charisms will help empower you with a sense of purpose, redeeming the hidden despair caused by abuse and helping you to step into the life God desires for you.
“By means of these gifts the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to obey more easily and promptly His voice and impulse. Wherefore these gifts are of such efficacy that they lead the just man to the highest degree of sanctity… the Holy Ghost is Himself the supreme Gift... through the gift which is the Holy Ghost, many other... gifts are distributed among the members of Christ.”
(Pope Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus)
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