Charism of Faith

Definition: Exceptional trust in the love, power, and provision of God and remarkable freedom to act on this trust.

Testimony for the Charism of Faith

Faith is a ‘quiet’ charism for me because it affects the way I make decisions. It means stepping out and doing things when I can’t see the way ahead clearly! This is not like gambling or making obviously silly or reckless decisions. There are risks involved but they are never reckless. When I pray, I have a strong sense of being directed by God.

I lived in an abusive marriage for 13 years. During those years, I lost everything that had been precious to me, my faith, friends, family, and my sense of self-worth. I blamed myself for the horror of my existence and thought that God was punishing me because I wasn’t perfect and my sinfulness was a terrible mess he couldn’t clean up because it was too filthy!

“We prayed the rosary together and something amazing happened to me!”

Then I talked to a lovely Catholic young man in my extended family who told me that God’s love for me was so big that it didn’t matter that I couldn’t feel it. We talked about the Communion of Saints and the fact that we are not alone in our struggles here on earth because we have an army of brothers and sisters in Heaven who are praying with and for us! Then we talked about Mary and her loving position as Mother of the Church and he emphasised that she’s the Mother of the broken-hearted. We prayed the rosary together and something amazing happened to me! I felt full of the love of God and the dark sadness that had been increasingly clouding my mind and oppressing my body went away and has never come back!

Over the following years, I was received into the Church and I when I prayed I had and have a strong sense of being directed by God. I tried to work with my husband to fix our broken marriage, but he rejected me and my new faith.

The charism of Faith gave me the assurance that I would leave my husband and find a safe place to live. I was still terrified that my husband would hurt me and it took me two and a half years to get away from him, but now I live in my own home with my children.

I had given up my job after my first child was born and didn’t know what I would get in terms of employment. Once again by Faith I knew that God had a job for me. I have a job now that is very challenging, but which I can do and still care for my children.

The charism of Faith helps me to see that God will give me whatever I need in every situation to do his will. It impacts the lives of lots of people not just my own. I think that the witness of my life lived by faith inspires other people to trust in God too. For example, one lady who spoke to me last year about my story, felt that God was calling her to give up her job as a teacher and start her own business. She had been feeling this for several years, but told me that she felt very afraid of letting go of what had become a very stressful, but “safe” option for her. After our conversation, she left her
job. She hasn’t found the early months easy but she told me recently that it was the right decision for her. She’s happier, her family is doing better and she feels able to be a better mother to her young daughter without the stress and workload of her teaching job.

“He saw the transformation in me as I grew in my faith.”

Also, my older son has a wonderful, growing faith in God! When he was 8 years old he asked to be baptised and his father refused. My son saw what was happening in our marriage, but more importantly he saw the transformation in me as I grew in my faith. He said that he would trust in the Lord for baptism just like I was trusting in the Lord for our new home.

It took 5 years of trusting and prayer. The same year we moved into our new house, my son was finally baptised and received the Holy Eucharist for the first time. He was full of joy and told me that he had never stopped
trusting in the Lord!

Every day I am listening to God’s call to live to the fullest, the life he planned for me when he conceived me in his heart, before I was even a thought in my mother’s mind.

God’s plan is the only one I want to live by! Every day I open myself to his love more and more so that I can say with St Elizabeth of the Trinity ‘God in me, and I in him’, oh! that is my life!’