Resources

Charism

A charism is a gift from God for the Church and is the special way a person approaches life.

Mary MacKillop's charism may be summarised as:

• A radical trust in the Providence of God,
  A loyal service of the Church
  A readiness to discern the urgent needs of the time,
  Faith and courage to risk suffering and failure for the sake of the Kingdom,
  A life of poverty and prayer.

Pope Paul VI was the first to label "charism" specifically in relation to religious institutes¹. He explained that the charism of the religious life, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who is always at work within the Church.

In a religious congregation, the charism is spoken of as a gift to the founder or founders, "their own particular way of understanding and concretising the following of Jesus in the People of God."² It is described as a mysterious energy and passion which inspire the founders to show a new face of God to the world.

It "is the font of a fidelity which will become tradition and will experience a development of graces and of forces that pertain to the patrimony of every institute, a patrimony which its members receive and must maintain with the power of their divine vocation."³ This "charism is collective, even if in the beginning it was personal in the person of the founder. It becomes and remains personal in each of the members of the institute called by the divine gift to participate in the common charism."⁴

This gift determines the identity of the institute, its nature, its spirit, its finality and its particular character.

Maria Casey rsj

¹ W. Harrington, "Charism", in J. A., Komonchak, M. Collins and D. A. Lane (eds), The New Dictionary of Theology, Wilmington, DE, Michael Glazier Inc., 1987, p. 180, states that the word "charism" owes its use in religious language to St. Paul. "It is a supernatural gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit for building up the body of Christ. A charism is a gift which has its source in the charis - grace or favor - of God and which is destined 'for the common good,' (1 Cor 12: 7)." Paul goes on to describe some of the gifts of the Spirit to the Church.

² J. Arnaiz, "Comment comprendre et présenter", p. 221.

³ J. Beyer, "Charisms, Religious Institutes and Particular Churches", in Consecrated Life, 15 (1990), p. 316.

⁴ Ibid. See John Paul II, "Religious Live Baptismal Vows Intensely", in L'Osservatore romano (English edition), 5 October 1994, p. 11. The Pope says that "collective charisms are generally bestowed on men and women who are destined to establish ecclesial works, especially religious institutes, which receive their distinctive mark from their founders' charisms, live and work under their influence and receive new gifts and charisms for each individual member and for the community as a whole."

⁵ G. Ghirlanda, "Carisma di un istituto e sua tutela", in Vita consacrata, 28 (1992), p. 470.

⁶ RESOURCE MATERIAL Academic explanation of 'Charism'

Return to Resources