Sign Posts On The Way

I was blessed to have a Jesuit priest-psychiatrist, Angelo D’Agostino, as a mentor. Dag, as he was known, spent the last years of his life working with AIDS children in Kenya Africa. As a result of his unique ministry his cause for canonization is being introduced in Rome. Dag agreed to mentor me under one condition, that I learn how to work with communities. His conviction was that we are healed and saved in the context of community but that very few people being trained for ministry were being formed to lead groups and communities.

My ministry with communities has taught me that there are four major qualities of life-giving, spiritual communities: discerning the gifts of each member; leadership that is life-filled; sharing faith; and becoming disciples of forgiveness.

The key element in producing life-filled, successful communities is to assist each member to discern her/his gifts and call. It begins from the conviction that every baptized person has been gifted and called by God. Surprisingly, many of those gifts that we possess emerge from painful experiences in life. One of the most successful, life-filled parishes I have encountered helps the parishioners to discover the gifts God has given them including such gifts as: cancer, divorce, death of a child, etc. Can you identify your gifts?