Charism – A Simple Gift – What Is It?

by Sr. Evelyn Varboncoeur, sscm

This is the season our minds and hearts turn to gifts.  We’re only days from Christmas – our celebration of the Gift that was given – and received – with great love.  With this Gift in mind, let’s reflect on gift, itself, for a moment.  In your imagination, recall a memorable gift you were given at some moment in your life. Perhaps as a child… or maybe just last week… How would you use describe that gift?   As an unexpected surprise?  Beautifully wrapped – or not?  So touched your heart so that you’ve kept it all these years? From someone who knows and loves you?  Let your experience of receiving that gift touch you once again.  In asking you this question, my own memory resurrects a number of special gifts –all received from my parents with love: a story book with a different fairy tale on each page, my father’s wristwatch he had repaired for me, a microscope, and a four-year diary.  One very special birthday gift my sisters and I always received from our mother was a made-from-scratch angel food cake.  But I digress.

Another significant question: did you ever receive a gift with the understanding that it was to be given away?  There is such a gift – its name is charism.  It is given by One – the Holy Spirit who knows and loves you beyond measure, it lies deep in your heart – and it is there to be given away.  

The word “Charism” originates in the Greek language.  Our Sister Agnes Cunningham translates this word as grace, gratitude, delight, gift, friendship. 

St. Paul readily acknowledges this gift of the Spirit in his followers:

…each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. (1 Cor. 7:7)

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit…to another mighty deeds;…to another discernment of spirits…But one and the same Spirit produces all of these distributing them individually to each person as [the Spirit] wishes.  (1 Cor. 12:4-11)

And St. Peter urges his listeners:

As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)

As we continue on, I will be sharing with you a charism-gift that I’ve received and treasure. It came to life in the midst of my family and it continued its growth throughout my grade school and high school years during which I was taught by the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary.

Having shared the above in relation to personal charism, the understanding of charism can be expanded to include a gift given to a community of individuals – such as a congregation of women religious – my congregation: the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary. Its charism experience is representative of many congregations whose journey began in years past, traversed Vatican II and continues as a vital presence today.  This is our story.

We recognize March 19, 1860 as our foundation – the day Holy Family Orphanage opened its doors in Paris, France.  The founders of this home were François Delaplace, a Spiritan priest, and Marie Moisan, a woman searching for God’s will in her life.  François was, a discerner, a visionary and Marie, was a searcher, practical and realistic. This “work of love” as it was called eventually led to a new religious congregation, the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary.  For our first 100 years, our founding sisters lived under the guidance of Father Delaplace, at first through his actual presence, later through the Constitutions he wrote.  Then Vatican II came along and challenged all religious communities – including ours – to renew their religious life, to return to their sources, to the original spirit of their founders and foundation and adapt these to the changed conditions of the present time.

Thus we began our years of prayer, reflection, study, research – to uncover the “original spirit of the institute” as lived by our Founders and sisters in those early years.  And what treasures emerged from our research!!

Father Delaplace, just months before his death, wrote a “spiritual testament”.  From that document as well as from reflection on the lives of our founders, a three-fold charism was

identified.  This charism was lived for 100 years – was implanted – in the spirit of each sister throughout that century.  Thanks to the challenge to “return to the sources” this charism was actually recognized and named.  It is the same charism today – throughout our Congregation – uniquely expressed in each time, place and culture in which our Congregation exists. 

I want to unwrap for you this three-fold gift, again using the words of our Sister Agnes:

The spirit of faith is “an attitude toward life, the events of life, and other persons…it is to be human in the fullest sense of that word…putting on the mind and the heart of Christ…letting the spirit of faith transform the response to life, life experience, the society…[and] the culture that [is ours]….”

The spirit of sacrifice is … “like a two-edged sword…we offer something to God, we agree to accept from God the trials and sufferings of life…a quality to be integrated into life…it is experienced in a unique way through our relations with other human persons…”

The family spirit “calls for a quality of being that finds expression in simplicity, humility, modesty, goodness, cordiality.  These virtues reveal the presence of the Spirit in our lives…they also foster interpersonal relationships.”

This charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit to every Servant of the Holy Heart of Mary and to others who are members of our extended family: affiliates, members of the Delaplace prayer ministry, consecrated laity, and servant companion.   Thanks be to the Holy Spirit for this gift we have been given and which we are blessed to be able to give away.

This is the charism our religious family has received and is living.  For your personal reflection, you have been given a charism/gift by the Holy Spirit.  Have you identified and named it?