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The Catherine of Siena Institute offers workshops to help lay Catholics discern their spiritual gifts and their calls from God. We provide training and seminars in evangelization and adult faith formation to lay and ordained leaders in the Church at the parish and diocesan level. Two of our best known programs are Making Disciples and the Called & Gifted™ Workshop.
Making Disciples
Making Disciples is a seminar that trains parish leaders to foster the awakening of personal faith in Christ and intentional discipleship. The evangelizing awareness and skills learned in MD can be applied to almost any kind of ministry situation and used with family, friends, and co-workers.Making Disciples is currently under revision to respond to the challenging realities of our world today, post-Covid.Called & Gifted™ Workshop
The Called & Gifted™ Discernment Process is our best known offering and has been used in the formation of over 200,000 lay, ordained, and religious Catholics all over the world.Just as God has given us our mission in baptism and confirmation, so also does Christ give us the tools or gifts by which we can effectively accomplish that mission. The Church calls these gifts of the Holy Spirit that Christians are given for the sake of others "charisms." Discerning our charisms is an important first step to discerning God's call for our life and participation in the Church’s mission of evangelization and facilitates the discernment of all vocations: ecclesial and secular. These gifts of the Holy Spirit are both clues as to the nature of the mission for which God is preparing us and tools with which to successfully carry out our mission.
In addition to the standard parish workshop which is available in both English and Spanish, the Institute has versions of the Called & Gifted™ workshop adapted for parish and diocesan staff, Catholic school teachers, DREs and catechists, diocesan priests, seminarians, religious congregations, and young adults.
Ananias Training
Ananias Training is designed to equip parishioners and pastoral leaders to:- recognize the stages of another's spiritual journey through compassionate listening.
- listen lovingly to their real questions and opinions about God in order to guide the discovery of how God is present and active in a person's life.
- talk about theirr relationship with God.
- share how they came to be a disciple of Jesus.
- share Jesus' own story in response to the spiritual hunger of another.
Parish Missions
Institute speakers give 10 – 12 parish Lenten, Advent, and other missions a year on a wide variety of topics related to discipleship, conversion, spiritual growth, discernment, and mission to the world. To inquire about a parish mission, contact Beverly Garza at [email protected].