Tools to Discover Your Gifts and Talents

At our December 2022 DYC meeting, the DYC met with Elizabeth Ortlepp, staff member for the San Damiano Scholarship Program at Marian University, Indianapolis. Elizabeth led the DYC members through a reflection on their gifts and talents they discovered at Christ Alive and went a little deeper to better understand how we might use them for our communities and our parishes. Elizabeth had us answer two questions:

How can we use our gifts in our church?
In what ways can you use your gifts and talents to be a leader in the Church?

Then she described a way of think about how we can put our gifts and talents to use called: The Big Idea. Elizabeth reminded us that a “big idea” didn’t have to be a huge project. If your gift is one of hospitality, it might be to make an effort to smile and introduce yourself to one new person a week at Church, of if your gift is evangelization, your big idea might be to share one thing about your faith life with a friend. We will go deeper into this idea in January and see how we can use our collective gifts to create one big idea for DYC.

Use these tools to help you discern your God-given gifts and talents that you can use in your community and parish to bring Christ’s light to those around you. Want more help? Reach out to Vicky at [email protected]

Gifts and Talents Inventory

Take this short assessment to see which gifts and talents you might have and see which saint also has that gift. Reflect on your top three.

Charism Descriptions

Want to go even deeper into what your gifts and talents mean or how you can live them out in your daily life? Check out this resource.

Now What?

“The BIG Idea” is a way to help use your gifts and talents in your community. A “big idea” didn’t have to be a huge project. If your gift is one of hospitality, it might be to make an effort to smile and introduce yourself to one new person a week at Church, of if your gift is evangelization, your big idea might be to share one thing about your faith life with a friend. Click the link for a process to come up with a “Big Idea.”