RELIGIOUS LIFE
COURTESY OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF SETON HILL
Charism: The gift that shapes lives By Catherine O’ConnellCahill, a writer and editor who lives in Chicago.
SISTER LINDENA Brace, S.C., who belongs to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, is fulfilling a charism that includes an emphasis on education.
Charism is the gift at the heart of all religious communities. It’s why they were founded and what keeps them going.
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CHARISM IS A GIFT that comes from the Holy Spirit. Its purpose? To serve others, and especially to build up and renew the Body of Christ, the church. When religious communities use the word charism, they mean the particular gift of the Spirit that inspired their founder—a man or woman of bold vision, who gathered other people to help turn that vision into action. The story of a community’s founder will reveal a charism in action. Often
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