Calling and the Compass of Desire
As we approach Vocations Sunday on 11th May, we're exploring what vocation looks like around the diocese. Today we hear from Rev'd Mark Godson, priest and spiritual director, and Ministry Development Officer for the Diocese of Hereford on what vocation means.
“Vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner
This captures the heart of vocation for me: a sacred meeting point between what brings us alive and what the world most needs. But how do we find that place? How do we discern our true calling in a world full of noise, pressure, and distraction?
Ignatian spirituality, rooted in the life and teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, offers a profound framework for understanding vocation. At its heart is the belief that God speaks through our deepest desires—not superficial wants, but the longings that arise from the core of who we are. Ignatius taught that these desires are not distractions from God’s will, but the very means by which God draws us toward our purpose.
Discernment, in the Ignatian tradition, is the practice of listening to those desires with care and prayerful attention. It involves noticing where we feel most alive, most free, most drawn toward love and service. It also means recognizing what leads us away from peace, joy, and integrity. Over time, patterns emerge—signs of a path that is uniquely ours.
Importantly, discernment is not a solitary process. It is grounded in prayer, reflection, conversation with others, and community. It invites us to ask not “What do I want to do?” but “What is God inviting me to become—for the sake of others?”
Parker Palmer, a Quaker writer and educator, deepens this insight in his book Let Your Life Speak. He writes:
“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.”
Palmer invites us to approach vocation not as a task to master, but as a mystery to be received. He encourages us to listen to our lives—to the patterns of joy and pain, the moments of clarity and confusion, the gifts we’ve been given and the wounds we carry. Our lives, he says, are already speaking. The question is: are we listening?
So, vocation is not about forcing ourselves into roles we or others think we should play in church or our community or family but about listening to the truth of our lives—our gifts, our limitations, and the unique shape of our soul. It is the discovery of where our deep gladness—our gifts, passions, and joys—can meet the world’s deep hunger for healing, justice, and hope.
In this light, vocation is not a static destination but a dynamic journey. It is the river already flowing within us, shaped by grace, guided by desire, and always moving toward God who is love.
- ENDS -