In a recent Congregational Zoom meeting, ‘Pathway of Transformation’ my small group sharing left me fanned with the love for conversations. Leaving this meeting, I wondered what the difference was between conversations and the art of storytelling.
Having grown up in a culture that values storytelling as the basis of tribal survival, I appreciate the value of conversations in our life-giving Mercy communities for mission. Likewise, I see storytelling having a role to play in the advancement of this mission. I do recall one member of my group saying that as Mercy women, we are in mission until death. This Sister was quick to note, ‘The mission is God’s and together with the laity, we participate in this mission as we live the mercy charism.’
Convinced that storytelling is one way a group of people passes on wisdom to the young, the way a community can displace despair with hope and disempowerment with power, we ponder: How can we as a community of vowed women in mission use storytelling to advance the mission to which God invites us? It is important to know there is passion behind our yearning to tell stories.
Take time to reflect on the stories you tell each other you in your community/cluster that give you impetus for mission. This mission could be my mercy presence to the Sister sitting next to me in the dining room, or my caregiving role to a community member in need of my support. Indeed, when we become aware of what is in us, it is altogether natural to announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it.
Storytelling has been used throughout our world history. As a matter of fact, before the written word, life events, family, community and world experiences of wisdom and grace were remembered through stories and passed on to the next generation by storytellers. Many of us will agree that stories allow us to share our collected wisdom. Begin to visualize how stories shared can empower and enhance our personal knowledge and enthusiasm, with the ability to nudge us from the apathy that we sometimes fall into when we give into self-pity. Recall a time in your recent past when an inspiring story shared in community/cluster flamed you into ‘new life’ throwing off every iota of self-pity arising probably from your own vulnerability or other unnamed losses. Undeniably, both the giver and receiver of stories can touch and be touched by the truth of a story’s message and leave traces of divine insight and human awe! Am tempted to call this the work of grace, God’s transformative movement in our lives.
My lived experience of the power of storytelling springs from my family environment. My mother was a great storyteller and most of her stories ended up with a ‘pinch of salt!’ Listening to my mum’s stories, mainly told in the evenings, I always felt these stories opened a window to the heart. Her stories not only passed on lessons, wonder and wisdom, but they also allowed something of her to be revealed and transposed. I look back to this experience and I am drawn to imagine how helpful it would be for us in communities/clusters to encourage storytelling as a means to healing our human relationships in community, society, parishes, workplaces etc. By its very nature, storytelling confronts the dysfunctional community/family rules that can dictate human relationships at all levels. Those who are in the art of storytelling will admit that storytelling breaks the vicious cycle of secret-keeping and lying and confronts the three laws of addictive behavior and communication: Don’t talk; don’t trust; and don’t feel. Indeed storytelling brings into clearer focus the fact that our life is an unfolding story and therefore helps us to understand where we are in that story.
As we together reflect on, ’Pathway of Transformation’, we gently begin to touch into the wisdom of allowing God to pray through our every moment and allowing mercy to become our guiding principle. This then becomes the starting point for our storytelling. Through God’s tender mercy, we will experience the fruit of storytelling. Storytelling heals. By revisiting an experience of the past, be it in ministry, community or otherwise, we can begin the process of reconciliation, which will embrace grief at its most intimate moments.
Life in all its transitions invites us to live the present and remember the past. Storytelling allows us to relive a blessed experience or for the first time to feel the pain of past moments that were too much to handle when first experienced. When we remember, we relieve both the past and embrace the fruit of the past in the present. Storytelling allows us to savor and reminisce. ‘To remember is to become divine.’ This is an old Jewish proverb. When we allow ourselves to remember and revisit how God has blessed us in the past, as individuals, communities and Congregation, we recapture those blessings again through storytelling. Isn’t this work of a lifetime? How then can we say ‘we are done?’ Storytelling as a channel for mission will last as long as we live in communities/clusters of individuals who are willing to build trust among themselves, and who dare to risk sharing their stories with people around them. This is a journey best taken by one, who believes, instead of looking to the future for the grace desired, the fulfilment of her/his desire could be standing next to her/him in an unspoken remembrance and story.
Allow me to invite you to visualize the richness in wisdom of the moment if we embraced sharing our stories in our communities or with people with whom we work. It is not enough that God should grace me with insight and wisdom as I learn from my lived experience. The fruit of my life needs to be shared and passed on to other people, and probably to the next generation of Mercy Sisters. Catherine McAuley showed us how best to do this! So, like Catherine, let us purpose to pass on the fruit of our life and lived experience as we tell our stories of mission both in the past and in the Now, given the reality of our own lives. And as we do so, be alert to notice the ‘new life’ that begins to be a welcome guest in our communities/clusters!
May none of our collected wisdom be lost because of unspoken stories. And may the fruits/gifts of the Holy Spirit bear fruits in us because as Mercy Sisters in communities/clusters, we are willing to give away generously what we have so generously been given. This way, there is hope that the mission to which we have been called will flourish in our time. Amen!!
Scholasticah Nganda
Kenyan Province
