Find My Charism
Praying beyond your resources
You bring a need you cannot resolve to God with others, asking for his help while offering the care within your reach.
Trust
Looking to God’s power to act beyond what human effort alone can accomplish.
Wondering how this gift may show up in your life? Discover your charisms →
Understanding Trust
Trust looks to God to do what human effort alone cannot accomplish. The Holy Spirit can give courage to pray boldly for another person’s need and undertake service that depends on God’s help beyond the resources we can see. This includes openness to miraculous works, which are God’s free gifts. Faith especially strengthens others to persevere in reliance on God; Trust attends to his power to act beyond our capacity. Confidence or a questionnaire result does not establish a gift of working miracles.
Where you may recognize it
These are places to explore dependence on God’s help. Bold prayer and prudent action do not establish that a miraculous work has occurred or that someone has a particular charism of miracles.
Depending on God in service
You seek Church guidance about a difficult work of service and take an agreed step while remaining open to how God may act.
Receiving an unexpected answer
You give thanks for help received, examine what actually happened with trusted guidance, and leave room for what you cannot explain.
Daniel trusts God among the lions
The image at the top of this page shows Daniel in the lions’ den. The story describes God protecting him, and Daniel attributes his deliverance to God rather than his own strength.
…he was found to be unharmed because he trusted in his God.
Daniel names God as the one who delivers him. The miracle shows God acting beyond Daniel’s ability to rescue himself; it is not produced by confidence or a technique. Trust brings needs beyond our capacity to God while leaving him free to answer. This story does not promise that faithful people will always be spared suffering.
More Scripture & Church teaching
1 Corinthians 12:4–11, 27–31
Paul includes miracles among the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These works of God reveal his power and serve the good of the Church.
Catechism 799–801
Charisms are gifts of the Holy Spirit for building up the Church and serving others. Love is their measure, and their discernment includes the guidance of the Church’s pastors.
Catechism 2003
The Spirit’s gifts, including miracles, help us love and serve others and build up the Church.
Trust in service of others
Prayer ministry and supported outreach offer places to bring difficult needs to God, learn from the Church’s guidance, and offer practical help. Speak with parish staff about preparation and an appropriate role; these ministries are places of service, not tests of miraculous power.
Prayer ministry
Join the parish’s prayer for the needs of its members and the wider community.
Mission and outreach
Join an established Church outreach partnership that shares Christ through friendship, proclamation and practical service beyond familiar parish circles.
Care for sick and homebound people
Offer companionship and practical care through the parish’s ministry to people who cannot easily take part in parish life.
Resources for learning and preparation
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The Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz
A daily journey through the Catholic Bible with readings, prayer and commentary from Fr. Mike Schmitz, offered by Ascension.
As you discern
Bring these experiences to prayer, Mass and the sacraments, and conversation with a priest or trusted guide in the faith. Look over time for love of God and neighbor, faithfulness to Church teaching, and the good of those you serve. Joy, difficulty, and others’ feedback can help you recognize patterns. Distinguish openness to God’s extraordinary help from certainty about what he must do or what your result establishes. If no example comes to mind, begin with the experience suggested below.
Recall bringing a need beyond your capacity to God. What help could you offer, what did you entrust to him, and what actually unfolded?
When events differ from your hopes, what helps you receive counsel, remain responsible, and leave God free to answer?
Something to try: Bring one difficult need to prayer with a trusted parish guide. Agree on a prudent act of service and ask boldly for God’s help without predicting an outcome. Return together to what actually happened, what remains unresolved, and how the people involved can continue to be cared for.
Bring this to prayer
Saint Brother André
Come, Holy Spirit. Help me bring the needs beyond my strength to God with courage and humility.
Keep me open to your power and free from making promises in your name. Guide the help I can offer and teach me to leave the outcome with you.
Saint Brother André, pray for me.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Brother André was a Canadian Holy Cross brother who welcomed visitors as a doorkeeper in Montreal. People who were sick came to him, and he prayed with them, encouraging trust in God through Saint Joseph’s intercession. With few resources, he helped establish Saint Joseph’s Oratory. His humble service shows how confidence in God can sustain prayer and make room for work that first seems beyond reach.
More about his life ↗