In our last class of the Art of Communication class, we talked about the power of intention. When we think to set an intention before we meditate, or as we start out day, it shapes what follows. We also talked about the deep intention, the intention for a life, that comes out of knowing what we care about most. I told this story, drawn from a blog post by Jan Phillips on Krista Tippett’s On Being website, and I just realized I had neglected to post it. So here it is:

Former nun Jan Phillips had been a young postulant in her first theology class when a Jesuit priest asked the students what they believed about God. One by one, the young women quoted lines from the catechism:

“God made me to show His goodness and to share His everlasting life with me in heaven.”

“In God there are three divine persons, really distinct, and equal in all things—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

“God can do all things, and nothing is hard or impossible to Him.”

With each contribution, the priest grew more impatient until finally he burst out, “You should be ashamed for having nothing more than catechism answers to this question. Are you just a bunch of parrots, repeating everything you’ve been taught?” His words devastated Phillips. “He asked for our ideas about God and yet, when we said them, it felt like he took a sledge hammer and smashed our beliefs into a thousand pieces.”

But what he said next planted the seed that allowed Phillips to take responsibility for the maturation of her calling. “If you are to be a nun worth your salt,” the priest continued, “you have to arrive at a faith that is deeper than your learning, one that is rooted in your ultimate concerns and rises up from the nature of who you are.

“What you believe, that is religion,” he said. “Who you are, what you live for—that is faith.”

Excerpted from The Year of Living Virtuously: Weekends Off by Teresa Jordan