{"id":10154,"date":"2026-06-27T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=10154"},"modified":"2026-06-26T19:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:38:29","slug":"passing-along-our-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/passing-along-our-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing Along Our Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Photo:<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is going to be a short one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, I’ve had two ‘one of those weeks’ in a row. Our youngest daughter tells me there’s been a lot of tree and grass pollen in the air lately, so that may account for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, a homily I heard two weeks back and posted last week asked two questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“…What are you doing to pass on and give to the younger generation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Are you going to share your life story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your vocational calling of how you met and allowed God to work in your lives….”
(“Our Vocational Calling<\/strong><\/a>” Focus on Listening to God for Our Vocational Calling > Disciples, Then and Now > Sharing Our Stories<\/a>, Fr. Mark Botzet)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those are good questions. Teaching kids skills, telling them what to do and what to avoid; those are good ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I think sharing our stories; what we’ve experienced and how we were affected \u2014 that strikes me as a very good idea indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s nothing wrong with teaching skills and rules. But stories \u2014 telling stories is how we show WHY<\/strong> the skills and rules matter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"John<\/a>
“Every thing’s got a moral, if only you can find it.” “Alice in Wonderland”, the Duchess. (1866)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That doesn’t mean I think concocting ‘and the moral of this story is’ narratives is necessarily a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sharing what we’ve learned with the next generation, that does make sense:<\/p>\n\n\n