Fruitful Discipleship
Fruitful Discipleship
Living the Mission of Jesus in the Church and the World
Sherry A. Weddell
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
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Copyright © 2017 by Sherry A. Weddell. Published 2017.
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All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission from the publisher. For more information, visit: www.osv.com/permissions.
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440
ISBN: 978-1-61278-973-6 (Inventory No. T1734)
eISBN: 978-1-61278-974-3
LCCN: 2017936923
Cover design: Lindsey Riesen
Cover photo: Shutterstock
Interior design: Dianne Nelson
Printed in the United States of America
About the Author
Sherry Weddell created the first charism-discernment process for Catholics in 1993 and co-founded the Catherine of Siena Institute (CSI) in 1997 with Father Michael Sweeney, O.P. The Institute trains Catholic leaders in the art of twenty-first-century evangelization and fostering parishes of intentional missionary disciples, in facilitating the discernment of charisms and vocations among all the baptized, and in the theology, formation, and mission of the laity. Sherry and her international team of collaborators have worked directly with 140,000 lay, religious, and ordained Catholics in well over 500 parishes in 150 dioceses across North America and in Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Sherry is the author of Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus (2012) (also available in Spanish as Formación de Discípulos Intencionales and in Polish as Badz Uczniem Jezusa). She also edited and contributed to Forming a Parish of Intentional Disciples (2015). When Sherry is not hanging out in airports, she enjoys tending her high-altitude Tuscan garden in the Colorado Rockies.
By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. John 15:8
Contents
The Weight of My Neighbor’s Glory
The Charismatic Is Co-Essential
Pastoral and Communication Charisms
Organizational and Lifestyle Charisms
Healing, Understanding, and Creative Charisms
The Art of Discerning Charisms
Acknowledgments
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition copyright © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Introduction
One of the greatest blessings of my life over the past two decades has been the opportunity to listen to tens of thousands of Catholics around the world describe how God is using them in the lives of others. The one-on-one listening sessions that we call gifts interviews are just about the most fun you can have legally. We hear these words over and over: “I’ve never told anyone this story before but….”
For my collaborators and me, the interviews have provided a stunning window into the realities of God’s grace at work in our world that regular Catholics in the pews hardly ever get the chance to put into words. The stories we’ve heard run the gamut from the funny to the unexpected to the hopeful, and occasionally to the gloriously extraordinary. (I once had the chance to listen to someone describe an experience of bilocation!)
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