The Garden Within: Cultivating Your Charism
“We cannot but admire the great wealth of gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit on lay people” (Pope St. John Paul II).
Bearing Fruit: Cultivating the Garden of Our Hearts
Gardens are an important setting in Scripture. Adam and Eve are created in the Garden of Eden, born out of God’s great love for us (Genesis 2). Jesus prays and suffers in the Garden of Gethsemane before he is arrested and crucified (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46)—again, out of love for us.
This Lent, the Catholic Women in Business team is meditating on our interior garden, where we can invite God to help us bear fruit. As St. Augustine wrote, “The turn of phrase by which the man is said to work the land, which is already land, into also being landscaped and fertile, is the same as the one by which God is said to work the man, who was already a man, into also being godfearing and wise.”
Editor’s note: If you are interested in discerning your charisms, join our Membership Community for access to December 2023’s Mastermind Meeting on the topic (and access to the recording afterward).
Picture a colorful flower, a buzzing bee diligently working at one aromatic blossom and then moving on to the next, a weeping willow with an umbrella-like canopy that provides cool shade, and a sturdy path that allows easy movement for both gardener and visitor.
These familiar images are also metaphors for the fruits born out of our own interior garden. We share joy with bright smiles and cheerful laughter that warm others’ hearts. We touch people with our abundant hospitality. We lift up others with genuine encouragement. We give reassurance with calm understanding. And we provide others with direction when we demonstrate wise leadership.
These are just a few examples of the charisms the Holy Spirit bestows. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states, “Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world” (799).
Planted at Baptism
The Holy Spirit bestows charisms upon us at baptism. At first, our charism is undeveloped, like a tiny seed, but over time, we can nurture it and see it grow. We then see ourselves reaching out to others in ways that we may not have been comfortable with at first, but the supernatural work of God is at hand.
We might find that we have the gift of fortitude, knowledge, piety, wisdom, fear of God, prophecy, counsel, understanding, joy, or mercy. Although we may need to do a bit of tilling, these gifts of service are there, ready to bloom.
Putting Our Charism to Use
The purpose of these special graces is to make the “faithful ‘fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church’” (CCC 798).
Just as the last words of each Mass instruct us to go out on mission, the Church calls us to use our charisms in the world. Once we discover them, we cannot keep them holed up within the walls of our church buildings or our homes. Rather, all charisms “work together ‘for the common good’” (CCC 801). We each have a role to play.
Are you good at listening to others? Do you seem to have a knack for being merciful? Are you skilled at teaching? Do you have an ability to seek and retain knowledge? Are you able to understand God’s plan and express it to others? These are examples of charisms.
The Church informs us that “the Holy Spirit ‘distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank’ for the building up of the Church” (CCC 951). No matter who we are or at which stage of our personal or professional life we are, the Holy Spirit offers us the opportunity to embrace our gift and share its fruits with others. Once Christians have identified our gifts, they “are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well” (CCC 800). We are to implement our charism and support others as they do the same.
When we look at people sitting in the pews, when we see other drivers sitting in their cars next to us at a traffic signal, when we observe other shoppers waiting in line at the grocery store, and when we look at our screen with numerous boxes filled with various faces during an online meeting, we can reflect with curiosity about which charism each may have. Is the person sitting across from me at church bestowed with the gift of healing? Is the driver ahead of me bestowed with the gift of piety? Is the cashier bestowed with encouragement? Is a colleague you only know online bestowed with the gift of fortitude?
In keeping our eyes and ears open in discernment, we will not only discover our own charism, but doing so may also help bring to light the charisms we see shared by the people around us.
We are called to cultivate the charism we are given by the Holy Spirit. As our loving Father continues to work on us, we are gardeners of our gifts, helping them grow to enhance the fruits that stem from each one.
Linda A. Burrows is an attorney specializing in trust and estate law in southern California. She studied journalism at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, law at Pepperdine, and tax law at Georgetown. Linda is the founder of Soul Soda, a non-profit with the mission of refreshing faith in those, particularly Catholics, who are feeling disconnected from their religious roots. She is a wife and mother of three teens. Linda’s Confirmation name was that of St. Gabriel the Archangel.