Tell Me A Story: The Role of Narrative in the Faith Life of Catholics

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by Fr Bob Hater

144 pages -- 5.5 X 8.5"

This interesting and engaging resource is invaluable for anyone involved in conveying the story of Jesus and the church: pastors, homilists, catechetical leaders, catechists and teachers, other parish ministers and families, as well as anyone who wishes to find God in their own stories.

Every person has a story worth telling, a story that may express a defining moment in his or her life. Such stories ultimately shape our identities and express a powerful in-breaking of God's active love into our lives. Here master storyteller Father Robert Hater addresses the need to link these personal experiences with faith experiences. His premise is that "story without basic belief lacks direction and basic belief without story is lifeless." Father Hater clearly illustrates this relationship with sensitive and powerful narratives and describes it through the lens of faith, hope, and love. As Mark Markuly comments in the Foreword, Father Hater invites us to let faith illumine our experiences, to "interpret our stories of the precious moments of our lives in light of the story of Jesus Christ and the Church and its teachings. In so doing, our core life events, our defining moments, will become part of God's work to resurrect, from the ashes of loss, struggle, doubt, and death, a new creation."

Robert J. Hater is a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He works in a parish, and is professor os systematic and pastoral theology at the Atheneum of Ohio. Father Hater holds a PhD in philosophy from St. John's University, New York.