copyright Favoring Brave LLC 2023
Most spiritual gifts tests online weren't written with Catholics in mind. Ours was built from the ground up on the Church's teaching on charisms (spiritual gifts) — with an instant, personalized report on the gifts you're most likely to have.
If you've searched for a spiritual gifts test, you've probably noticed that nearly all of them come from Protestant ministries. Many are thoughtful and sincere — but they're built on different theological foundations. Gift lists vary widely; some include Church offices like "apostle" or "pastor" as personal gifts, and none of them work from the Catholic understanding of charisms found in the Catechism.
The Catholic tradition has its own rich teaching here. The Catechism describes charisms as "graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church" (CCC 799) and teaches that every baptized person has received at least one. A Catholic spiritual gifts test should be built on that teaching — the same understanding of gifts you'll hear in the documents of Vatican II and the writings of the saints.
That's what ours is. The charism assessment draws on 19 years of study and accompaniment in Catholic charism discernment, and it's used by individuals, parishes, and dioceses worldwide.
The assessment evaluates your responses against the 24 charisms most consistently recognized in Scripture and the life of the Church:
Seventeen of these come directly from St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians, Romans, and Ephesians; the rest are also rooted in Scripture and witnessed consistently throughout the Church's history. You can read about each one in our guide to the 24 charisms.
The test costs $9. There are two versions — one for adults and one built for high schoolers (ages 14–20) — and the test will auto-adapt based on the age you enter in your demographics. This means that the questions will meet you where you're at in life and be applicable to experiences you are actually having.
No test — ours included — can tell you for certain which charisms you have. What a good one does is give you an objective, outside read on where the Holy Spirit is most likely at work in you, winnowing 24 possibilities down to a handful worth your time and attention. The Catechism says discernment of charisms "is always necessary" (CCC 801): prayer, feedback from people who know you, and testing the gifts in real life.
That's why we call it the beginning of discernment, not the end. The report is built to start that process well, so you're not staring at a list of 24 gifts wondering where on earth to begin.
Twenty minutes from now, you could have names for gifts you've been using your whole life without knowing it.
Much of what we offer is free — the guide to the 24 charisms, our podcast, and our community. The test itself costs $9 because the assessment software and personalized reporting are proprietary tools that take real investment to build and maintain. The main alternative for Catholics has historically been workshop programs that cost far more.
About 20 minutes. It's resumable, so you can stop and pick it back up where you left off, no matter how long it's been.
Yes — the high school version is written for ages 14–20, with its own custom PDF report. All you need to do is access the high school version and enter an age between 14 and 20 on your demographic page. The test will take care of everything else!
The Church teaches that every baptized person has charisms and that discerning them is necessary (CCC 799–801). A test doesn't replace that discernment — it gives you a clear and easy starting point. Ours is used by parishes and dioceses precisely because it gives people a concrete first step toward gifts the Church has always taught they have.
A personality test describes your natural makeup. This test looks at a different layer: the supernatural gifts the Holy Spirit has given you for serving others. (If you're coming from the Enneagram conversation, we wrote about that here.)
Want your whole parish, staff, or ministry team to take the test? We work with parishes and dioceses at every scale — from bulk assessments to full programs with an administrative dashboard that shows you the gifts across your whole community. Start with our parish programs or tools for organizations.