Favorite Story Teller

Paolo discovered Nil Guillemette and his stories when his teacher in English assigned the class to write a book report. He asked his mother to suggest titles which may be good book report materials, and she gave him some books called God Tales written by Nil Guillemette.

Nil is a priest. His stories always have God as the main character. God's presence in the stories is often very subtle, but always, he's there, making the very significant difference in people's lives.

Paolo loved the stories about the contest of the breads, cakes and pastries with the goal of finding out who is the best thing to be eaten by the people. The chocolate cake is really a dark horse, a sure winner because of glamour and taste. But the fruit pastry can also be so delicious and tempting. The French bread is a real 'trying hard' contender. The unexpected winner was the humble pan de sal, by virtue of its humility and satisfying speech and presentation. Every human being seeks a pan de sal at the breakfast table every morning of their lives. No person can begin the day without a pan de sal.

Another lovely story is entitled "The Agony and the Ecstacy," about an acorn who accepted the offer to become a tree for curiosity's sake, only to regret later because of the growing pains and then the suffering it went through as a fully grown tree. It was cut and then made into a musical instrument. But later at its first performance before an appreciative audience, the acorn who became a tree who became a violin was extremely joyous. It was glad it went through all those hurts for this immensely precious reward-- that of making people happy and being loved for it.

Another one is "A Son for A Son," about a father who offered his son to be killed so he could atone for the pain he caused another father by unjustly killing the latter's innocent son. But the aggrieved father chose to forgive and instead asked the guilty father, who happened to be the tribe's chief, to "give back life to our dying village, put end to the enmity between our village and that of our neighboring village. Stop the killing of our young men, husbands, and fathers in meaningless tribal wars! "

Paolo shared God Tales with his classmates. They also fell in love with the stories and asked him for more.

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