Mother Teresa once said that “joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
Tellingly, she also said that, “it is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
In my own life I have found both of these statements to be true, almost excruciatingly so sometimes. My heart longs for adventures, for traveling to far off places, for doing big things with God, for being on mission, officially, again. Joy can seem elusive amongst the commonplace day in and day out living of being a mom to little people and a caregiver for Gram.
But joy, and with it, maintaining a missionary mindset that allows me to serve and love deeply where I am, is what I am called to. It’s what all of us are called to.
Thankfully, God has blessed each and every one of us with gifts that make it easier to do just that. During the Sacrament of Confirmation the Holy Spirit bestows on each of us charisms (yes, each and every one of us). In short, Charisms are the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us to help us serve the Church. Using a charism, by it’s very nature, will help someone else understand God better and grow their relationship with Him. But in reality (and as kind of a God-given bonus), living into your charisms will also help you feel more joyful, more alive, more united with the Sacred Heart of Christ.
I know that when I am paying attention to how I am using my charisms, I am more myself than other times. Learning what my charisms are and then learning how to use them (which by the way, is a lifelong task because charisms grow and evolve just like the rest of us), has opened doors I didn’t know existed.
Resources to Help You Discover and Grow in Your Charisms
If this intrigues you and makes you want to learn more, then here are a few of my favorite resources on charisms:
- The Catherine of Siena Institute has a whole course on charisms that I could not recommend more.
- Jen Fulweiler’s book Your Blue Flame is not explicitly about charisms but it 100% touches on how to live them out and what it feels like when you do.
- And if the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity you struggle with (or is new to you), then be sure to check out Fr. Jacques Phillipe’s In the School of the Holy Spirit.
Mission of Joy Summit
The last resource I want to tell you about is the one that I am most excited about myself- the Mission of Joy Summit, happening (virtually) June 11th-13th. It’s 33 speakers over 3 days all about how to live with joy. Annnnd, I’ll be talking with Jill Simmons of Pink Salt Riot about charisms on Saturday the 12th. We’ll be doing a deep dive into what the individual charisms are and how to discern yours. If this is a topic you’re interested in, you don’t want to miss it.
Tickets are free to stream, but if you’re busy next weekend and still want to attend, you can upgrade your ticket to get a copy of the recordings (and some pretty sweet swag from Jill). It’s going to be an amazing weekend.
