I recently spent a day with a small group entrusted with one of the Church’s most delicate tasks: discerning whether someone is genuinely called to ordained ministry. It is holy work, but it can feel impossibly complex. A vocation isn’t confirmed with just a CV: it’s a life‑story, a whisper of God’s call, a web of gifts and limitations. How do we weigh such intangibles? How do we recognise the raw material of priesthood beneath personality, past experience, or nerves on the day? And of course, discerning whether someone had a call from God, is just one example of discernment – all people of faith have to try to work out the ways in which God is calling them to be in the world.
Halfway through our reflections, I shared something new: a course we’ve developed at GoHealth on spiritual intelligence. Eyes around the table lit up and these discerners leaned in closer. Because while we diligently measure rational skills (IQ) and increasingly factor in emotional intelligence (EQ), we rarely name, let alone nurture, the deeper wisdom that undergirds authentic spiritual development, whether we are called to the priesthood or not.
What Is Spiritual Intelligence?
Spiritual intelligence is the capacity to live wisely and perceive reality through the lens of purpose, meaning, and interconnectedness. It is the knowing that stirs when a sunset steals our breath or when stillness in a chapel feels thick with presence. Neuroscience, psychology, and theology now converge to show that these moments are not escapist illusions; they are normal human capacities that can be cultivated.
The Church has practised spiritual discernment for centuries— people of faith (monk, nun, priest or lay person) have all sought to tune hearts to the Spirit’s leading. Yet our cultural moment makes this wisdom more urgent than ever. Artificial intelligence can sift data and imitate creativity, but it cannot love. It doesn’t ask, Should we? It merely asks, Can we? Climate disruption, widening social fractures, and post‑pandemic anxiety all cry out for people who combine clear thinking and emotional insight with the deeper compass of spiritual intelligence.
Discernment Needs More Than Checklists
Back in that panel meeting, we realised how easily assessments default to tick‑boxes: academic aptitude, pastoral experience, psychological resilience. Vital markers, yes—but insufficient. We also need to ask: Does this person show a rootedness in God that can hold steady when parish life is chaotic? Can they read the signs of the Spirit in a divided community and lead with hope? Do they show the virtues of spiritual intelligence – humility, compassion, self-awareness, a sense of equanimity? Those questions are the terrain of spiritual intelligence.
Introducing the Course
That is why we’ve created “Spiritual Intelligence – wise living in an age of disconnection”. This online FREE course for church groups will be available in the autumn. You already know the transformative power of faith—how prayer knits communities and how pastoral presence quiets despair. This course offers the science behind those experiences, renewing confidence in the healing work God entrusts to us.
Over six sessions we will:
- unwrap the latest research on how prayer and contemplation shape the brain;
- explore practices that deepen discernment and resilience;
- and connect clergy, lay leaders, and curious seekers who believe the world needs wiser souls as much as smarter machines.
Learning and discerning together is what we need to do more of – and this FREE course will help groups of Christians to come together over six sessions to explore this fascinating new area of wisdom seeking.
Please click here to find out more and to register your interest in coordinating a group
You, as part of the GoHealth Community, are already committed to being a healing presence in the world. You understand that faith and health are deeply intertwined—that when we seek the well-being of others, we live out God’s call. Spiritual intelligence is the thread that ties together discernment, belonging, and healing. It helps us act not just with good intentions, but with wise insight grounded in the Spirit. We will be releasing a solo learning version of the course soon.
Challenge Questions for the Week Ahead
As you go about your life and work this week, we invite you to reflect on these questions in prayer, journaling, or conversation:
- Where have I recently experienced a moment of deep meaning, awe, or connection—and what might God be revealing through it?
- In my life of service, am I acting from a place of wisdom—or am I simply reacting?
- What does it mean for me, in my context, to be a healing presence right now?
- Am I cultivating spaces—in myself and my community—where discernment and belonging can flourish?
As always, thank you for walking with us in this sacred work.
Because together, we flourish.
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.” — Psalm 46:10
Creator God,
In the quiet moments of my life, help me to listen for Your whisper.
Teach me to see with the eyes of the Spirit—beyond appearances, beyond fear—
into the heart of Your calling for me.
Root me in Your presence, that I may live wisely and love well.
Grant me humility to discern, compassion to serve, and courage to heal.
May I become a still point in a chaotic world,
a presence of peace where pain lingers,
a bearer of hope where light seems dim.
Guide me, O Lord, in Your sacred way.
Amen.