Patron saints of
sacred stories
What is a “Sacred Story”?
To tell a sacred story is to tell the truth about ourselves and the world around us that strive to understand the ways God is working in our lives. A sacred story is a story that invites us closer to one another, one that forces us to stop and pay attention, and to be attuned to the divine in the everyday details of our lives.
As young adults, it can be hard to tell a story when you do not see it as “finished. However, when we look to the Bible we see that God often meets people in the middle of their story. It’s the unfolding, the process where we can find the divine. This messy, human, middle bit is often where the most sacred of stories live and thrive, waiting to be discovered.
Explore some of the Sacred Storytellers that inspire our work
Cole Arthur Riley
Cole Arthur Riley is an Author, Storyteller, and the founder of Black Liturgies. Her work primarily surrounds the ideas of identity, vocation, and christian storytelling. She seeks to understand the whole of the human experience as intrinsic to knowing God, others, and ourselves more clearly.
“I’ve accepted that the whole of my life will be a pilgrimage toward the sound of the genuine in me. This may sound troubling to those who’ve been conditioned to believe that our journey is to God and God alone, but I say the two paths are one. My journey to the truth of God cannot be parsed from my journey to the truth of who I am. A fidelity to the true self is a fidelity to truth. I won’t apologize for this.”
― This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
Father Gregory Boyle
Father Gregory Boyle is a Los Angeles Minister and a Jesuit Priest who, after confronting the realities of devastating Gang violence in his community created homeboy industries: a nonprofit focused on employing, training former gang members in a variety of trades, skills, and ways of engaging with the Boyle Heights community of Los Angeles. Father Boyle is a Patron Saint of Sacred Storytelling as he lives his life focused on giving voice to the voiceless. Reminding us that there is always room for another seat at the table and another story to be shared.
“Jesus was always too busy being faithful to worry about success. I'm not opposed to success; I just think we should accept it only if it is a by-product of our fidelity. If our primary concern is results, we will choose to work only with those who give us good ones.”
― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
Flannery O’Conner
Flannery O’Conner is a Short Storyteller, Novelist, and essayist whose work is rooted in the messy, flawed, incongruencies of life. Her work unravels theological questions about grace and personhood through the backdrop of absurd backgrounds, larger than life characters, and ingenious plot twists- and asks us to examine the own parts of our lives where we see ourselves, and the divine, in the midst.
“There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored."
― Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
Henri Nouwen
Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Theologian and Catholic Priest. His reflections on faith, loneliness, love, and spirituality invite us into deeper connection with one another and with God. Nouwen doesn’t shy away from the often harsh realities of life but leans deeper into them, knowing that is where we encounter the all consuming love of God.
“The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.”
― The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
Dolly Parton
Musician, humanitarian, and storyteller, Dolly Parton was a master craftsman of storytelling, using her gift to connect with people from all walks of life. In spite of her musical success, she often cites her proudest accomplishment as the Imagination Library, a nonprofit that provides free books to children across the country each month, and reminding us of the joy of connection, the humor in the mundane, the gift of generosity, and the fun of a little sparkle.
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams…The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
Howard Thurman
Howard Thurman is an American Minister and theologian who wrote about a theology of nonviolence in the ministry of Jesus. Thurman believed in the importance of sharing one’s lived experiences with others in order to engage more deeply with one another and to make active change in the world. His writings such as Jesus and the Disinherited greatly influenced Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry was a Poet and Novelist in the American South whose work primarily focused on Agrarian life and rhythms and nonviolence movements throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He wrote on the importance of being connected to place, caring for the land, and being cautious in our engagement with industry- viewing working the land as a holy work, and a representation of a holistic Christian life, and that the land is its own kind of storyteller, if only we’re willing to listen.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
― “The Peace of Wild Things”
Judy Heumann
Judy Heumann was a Disability Rights activist, teacher, writer, and leader, Judy shared her stories through memoirs such as Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. As a Patron Saint of Sacred Storytelling, she imagines a more accessible world. Judy shows us that by sharing our stories with others, we can make a difference in the lives of so many.
"Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can."
Never Miss a Story.
Get notified when new stories go live. Thoughtful writing and fresh ideas, delivered straight to your inbox.
