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Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Telling Stories of Our Faith, Our Lives

Once upon a time … . It’s “story time” in parishes all over the diocese, and if we go global, all over the Catholic world as people share their journeys of faith. This is the time of year we get a glimpse into people’s lives as they share their stories of how they decided right here, right now they want to join the Catholic Church.

Last Sunday afternoon more than 100 people, catechumens (who have not been baptized) and candidates (who have been baptized but ask for full communion in the Catholic Church) were “called by name.”

A beautiful rite of passage into the church, each one lined up with a sponsor, to be greeted by the bishop. A special experience for all of the people involved, it becomes a special experience for us when we realize that Catholics all over the world did the very same thing on the first Sunday of Lent: called those who want to become part of the church to continuing conversion.

Even though some of us are already Catholic, have been Catholic since birth and don’t remember anything about our baptisms, we forget that we are called to continuing conversion as well. It sounds kind of strange, but we all need time to reflect, to pray, to make sure we go in the same direction as our beliefs, our church and our conscience tell us to go.

In these hectic and tremendously unsettling times, we must turn to our moral compasses to make sure we’re headed in the right direction. That takes time and effort, and in some cases, courage. We’ve seen so many people, so-called leaders, making wrong, unethical or immoral choices, possibly forcing us to question our own choices.
These days of storytelling and reflection turn our minds and our hearts in the right direction: home by whatever definition we use, whether family, friends, parish and/or community. We need this storytelling to remind us of what really is important, especially as we know more and more people who are losing their jobs, maybe losing their homes and tearing at the external fabric that holds people together.
To knit that fabric back into whole cloth we need to turn inward, to find that quiet place where we know God resides and be quiet with our thoughts, our feelings and our God. In a world that seems like it’s falling apart, it’s difficult to listen internally.

But that’s what we need to do, to get our bearings and to steady ourselves so that we can take steps to help ourselves if we need to do that, and if we are among the fortunate people who have kept their jobs and their homes, we must reach out to others, not necessarily to give a hand out (although that is sometimes needed), but to be ready and willing to give a hand up, even if that seems small in comparison to what has been lost. While we can wallow in it, we can’t eat “pity” or take it to the bank. We can pray, support our parish, church and community agencies, and listen to the stories that people need to tell for their sakes and for ours.