August 14, 2009
Story teller captures listeners at workshops in Evansville, Ferdinand
Priests, deacons, pastoral associates, directors of religious education, parishioners and others listen to Megan McKenna tell a story at the Catholic Center in Evansville on Aug. 7. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Megan McKenna is a story teller, and the faces of her listeners bear witness to her ability to do just that.
McKenna was the presenter of a workshop in the Diocese of Evansville, held at the Catholic Center in Evansville Aug. 7 and again at Monastery Immaculate Conception Aug. 8. About 75 people attended the Catholic Center presentation; over 100, at the monastery, counting more than 50 Sisters of St. Benedict.
In the early portion of the Catholic Center presentation, McKenna told a story about a man lost in the desert, alone. After struggling for days, he gives up and lies down to die. In the quiet of his last surrender, lying on the sand, he hears the sound of water. Only after giving up is he saved, able to find the oasis.
McKenna’s story illustrates Baptism, dying in Christ and finding living water. She told her listeners — presumably all who have already been baptized — that the Sacrament of Reconciliation used to be called “Second Baptism.” And she pointed out that every time the Scriptures use the term, “Living Water,” it refers to the Word of God.
McKenna, the story teller, then proclaimed the Gospel account of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, and then pulled out what her listeners had noticed — how Jesus rose from the water, and then rose from the dead; how the sky was torn at his baptism, and the veil of the temple was rent at his death; how the voice from heaven was not intended for Jesus but for those around him; how Jesus rises, the Spirit descends and the Father speaks.
McKenna’s workshops were sponsored by the diocesan Off-ice for Adult Formation, and entitled, “Sacraments, Liturgy, and Ritual Rites of Justice.
Her website notes that she is an internationally known auth-or, theologian, storyteller and lecturer; that she is the author of more than 30 books; that she teaches at several colleges and universities; that she does retreats, workshops and parish missions; that she has graduate degrees in Scripture, Adult Edu-cation and Literacy, from the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley, and a masters in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She is, however, described as “a lover of words: the Scriptures, stories and tales, poetry, images and phrases spoken aloud, written down and spun to make meaning and how both convert and transform us and bring meaning and hope to the world.”