Sister Allison Regina
I’ve always loved stories. From fairy tales and folktales to sci-fi and fantasy novels, I’d read anything I could get my hands on growing up. There were Catholic books in the mix, too—Bible stories and lives of the saints. But for a long time, I thought all the best stories had nothing to do with God.
That changed when I was in college. I grew up Catholic, but it wasn’t until I was attending the Catholic University of America that I realized I could actually have a personal relationship with Jesus. I started deepening my prayer life through daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and praying lectio divina with Scripture. And as I learned how to hear Jesus’ voice more clearly, I realized something: God is the ultimate Storyteller, and He knows how to tell a story better than anyone. After all, nothing surpasses the amazing story of Salvation History and the surprise twist of Jesus rising from the dead (and saving us all in the process!). No other storyteller has a story that encompasses everyone who has ever lived and who ever will live.
While Jesus was calling me into the Daughters of St. Paul as a religious sister, I also felt Him inviting me to let Him into my own storytelling. I had been writing novels as a hobby, but He started to show me how a good story could be so much more than entertainment. Stories that include faith—that show a world where God acts and characters grapple toward redemption—can be a real source of spiritual nourishment. The best ones can even move readers closer to God in a powerful way.
That was how Jesus drew me to Himself: with stories and parables that helped me understand who He was and the relationship He desired to have with me. And that’s how He’s been calling me to evangelize as a Daughter of St. Paul: by telling imaginative stories with a heart of faith, everything from picture books about endless libraries to vampire novels for young adults.
But no matter how many stories I write, Jesus reminds me that the story He’s telling through my life—and through all our lives—matters far more than any fiction I invent. And if we stick with Him, He’ll lead us to the best ending of all.