What's the Story You Tell
by Mary Ann Nelson, OP
Sister Mary Ann Nelson, OP
What’s the story you tell about the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa? Since reading the featured article, “It Matters How We Tell the Story of Religious Life” by Janet Ruffing, RSM, in the fall issue of InFormation, that question has held my attention and imagination.
Each of us is a storyteller. And we know that the stories we tell matter. They matter because our stories provide a life view. They give order and structure to our experience. Each story presents a comprehensive way of thinking, behaving, feeling, and integrating the components of life. They matter because in and through our stories we integrate our past, present, and future. The story also orients us, and we continually recommit ourselves to discover how to live into its mysteries.
So, the story we tell today about the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa and the realities we face matters! There are many ways to talk about the same reality. Ruffing suggests that we move from “the dry yeast of factuality” to the “better story” that yields a surplus of potential meaning. What is the “better story” we might tell at this time in our history? Is it a story of diminishment and deconstruction? Or do we tell a story about the transformation of religious life for the sake of God’s mission? Are we telling the whole story, including both struggle and hope, suffering and impasse, as well as breakthroughs into trust that God is truly present through it all? The story we tell matters!
The stories our new members tell are about being in the midst of the transformation of Dominican life for the sake of mission. They tell stories of chaos, struggle, letting go, suffering, and impasse. They also tell stories of hope and trust in a faithful God who is always present. What’s the story you tell? Our newest members are learning to lean on God, and to anticipate the future with “a hope based on the faithfulness of God and a vision carried in our sacred stories.”
The Ruffing article is available for those of you who are interested on the INTRAnet. Go to www.sinsinawa.org/intranet and log on with your username and password. Click on “Resources,” then view the links under “Initial Membership.”