Why a Catholic Creativity Network?

Stories and story-telling have been the mode of bringing people closer to God ever since the dawn of humankind, because stories are the re-telling of individual human experiences, whether actually lived or created from imagination. The Hebrew Scriptures are replete with stories about how closely God interacts with His people. The Jewish people, according to their culture and heritage, chose to describe God and His ways through stories. God chose the Jewish people to reveal Himself in this way.

We as human beings have always been captivated by stories, regardless of what heritage we have come from. We listen to the stories of one another and we relate with the people involved. Stories provide a context for discussion about issues of the day, of concepts sometimes too abstract to grasp easily. If we want to discuss, for example, the ideas of love and devotion that reaches beyond animosity, we need only think of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and we get a clearer picture of the concepts.

I know that I have not exhausted all the possibilities inherent in stories and story-telling, but that is not my goal. The objective of this web site is not to discuss techniques of story-telling, nor how to improve one’s own story. It is meant to be a place to explore the spiritual foundations of story-telling, and how telling stories can be a mode by which we express our faith.

The Catholic faith is such a rich and deep experience that to describe it through merely abstract terms just does not do it justice. The Catholic faith is not simply a set of rules and regulations. It is an experience to be entered into authentically. Let us allow ourselves to become immersed in this faith. Let us wrap ourselves in it as a blanket and allow ourselves to be warmed by its comfort. Let us hoist ourselves up onto it as a walking stick and find support for our journey. Let us be propelled forward by its challenges and grow beyond our limits to where we never thought possible, except by the grace of God.