Office of Spirituality and Formation for Ministry

The Office of Spirituality and Formation for Ministry is an integral part of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Education of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. Spirituality and Formation for Ministry collaborates with the offices of central administration and provides coordinated, thorough and consistent preparation for ministry throughout our large diocese. Spirituality and Formation for Ministry helps lay women and men to understand the process of formation, as they use their gifts and talents in becoming Missionary Disciples.

Learn More: 2018-2019 Annual Report

Formation for Mission and Ministry is a staff-development process for all chancery, parish and Catholic Charities staffs who minister in the Diocese of Charleston which includes the entire state. Our shepherd, Bishop Guglielmone, recognizing the role of the laity in the church established Spirituality and Formation for Ministry under the Education and Faith Formation Secretariat in August of 2016. At that time, our bishop was responding and recognizing the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the great Ecumenical Council Vatican II. One of the sixteen documents of Vatican II was the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuiositatem.

His Holiness, Pope Paull VI promulgated the document and in its Introduction, one reads about the “proper and indispensable role of the laity in the mission of the Church.” The Christian vocation by its very nature is a vocation to the Apostolate.” #2. The laity’s major duty is union with Christ.

When the Office of Spirituality and Formation for Ministry began over five years ago, we delved into the formation pillars that originated with the writings of St. John Paul II—human formation, intellectual formation, spiritual formation, and pastoral formation.

The first three years, we concentrated on intellectual formation.  Specifically, we discussed Revelation and Catholic identity.  Second, we explored the sacraments and Models of the Church.  The third year, we examined the social teachings of the church and how we make moral decisions.  The fourth year, we transitioned into human formation as we learned about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and each participant took the full MBTI and either learned or re-learned their personality traits; and, last year, we concentrated on spiritual formation and had a retreat entitled Formed to Live Joyfully Our Time, Talent and Treasure.  Materials for this retreat are still online should a parish decide to offer to their parishioners.  We also collaborated with the Office of Stewardship and Mission Advancement.  We wanted to extend an invitation to all stewardship representatives from parishes, and several parishes sent people.

This year, our concentration will be human formation, as we review the importance of one’s IQ, EQ and LQ;  respectively,  Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Quotient and Love Quotient. As we do so, we will also explore how Jesus exemplified intelligence, emotional, and love quotients.  What do we mean by these terms?

IQ – Intelligence Quotient: a number used to express the apparent relative intelligence of a person: such as a score determined by one’s    performance on a standardized intelligence test relative to the average performance of others of the same age (Merriam Webster). The average IQ on many tests is 100 and 68% of scores lie between 85 and 115.

EQ – Emotional Quotient: Psychologist, Daniel Goleman, defined EQ as “the ability to employ self-control, zeal, persistence, and the skill to “motivate” others in one’s personal and work life” (Emotional Intelligence Why It Can Matter More than IQ).  Salovey and Mayer, first came up with the EQ theory by stating that emotional intelligence is “the part of social intelligence that involves the ability to discriminate and use information to guide one’s thinking and actions.

LQ – Love Quotient: A person’s ability to be kind and loving to himself and to others. Love Quotient is the newest of the intelligence paradigms following IQ and EQ. LQ, as defined by Chris Wise, a leading authority on LQ, is a person’s ability to be kind and loving to him/ herself and to others.  It’s about how deeply we love ourselves.  Having done the work on ourselves and having raised our love quotients, others may become more aware of the importance of LQ. (weforum.org).  Love Quotient: living a life embodied with love and consistently being aware of how we are caring for others at home and in the work place (Jack Ma former CEO of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd).

Many leaders in business believe that high emotional intelligence is key in today’s workplace (ministry). According to the Mayo Clinic the person you report to at work is more important to your health than your family doctor.