Stories are essential in homilies

Actually, the renowned author and priest has hundreds of stories, gleaned from his homilies and other sources during his years of ministry in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

Stories, according to Father Bausch, work well in homilies or daily conversation because they reflect and closely resemble our lives.

"With or without a homily, stories are a sure-fire catcher simply because that's who we are: stories," he said. "We have a beginning, a middle and an end. Good stories are basically our stories, one way or another. There's a deep psychological resonance with stories. We are a storied people by our spiritual and psychological nature."

His-story

After learning that a parishioner had been recording his homilies, Father Bausch eventually was convinced that the tapes should be put into print. The result was his 1990 book "Timely Homilies: The Wit and Wisdom of an Ordinary Pastor." "Telling Stories, Compelling Stories," "Story Telling the Word: Homilies & How to Write Them" and "More Telling Stories, Compelling Stories" followed.

A story works because "it's trying to answer life questions: Who are we, why are we, where are we going, what are we about, is there a journey, is there an end to it," Father Bausch said.

Bible stories

The Bible was "first a many-centuries oral tradition," he writes. "That's something we forget, and in one way it's the preachers job to pull the text off the page and restore it to the mouth -- and the heart."

A homily that entertains but doesn't add to the Gospel message, however, misses the point.

"You should never tell a story that is very good, clever, witty and wonderful but doesn't tie into the meaning, because people are looking at the frame and not the picture," he said. "You'll get a nice response from your congregation, but they won't know anything you said that relates to Scripture."

Human nature

There's a shared experience when a good storyteller reaches listeners, and homilists should keep focused upon a specific idea to get through to them.

"A good story invites people to enter into another's experience and make it their own," he writes. "And experience has shown that one good point in a homily reinforced with a story can be more effective than ten deep but abstract ideas."

Responses

"You can take a story, put it in different contexts, and you'll get different meanings from it," he said. "That's the way it's supposed to be."

Whatever the occasion, stories touch listeners because they, like our own lives, have the same structure, Father Bausch writes.

"All stories replay humankind's oldest metaphor: that of the journey. We all have a beginning, middle and end. Stories recount that always. Stories are us. A good story invites us into other people's experiences and make them our own."

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