Contemporary society is fast losing grip of the sense of community life. This tendency, to say the least, has begun to impact negatively on the morality of the younger generation—the very people that hold the ‘key’ to tomorrow’s society. This is the time to reverse this trend. This is the time to revive the sense of community. This is the time to restore the moral values we tend to have lost. In this project, there can be no better target group than the young people themselves. They need to be taught, they need to be told, but above all, they need to be convinced of what is taught and told.

From experience, it is proven that such conviction, which needs to begin with the teacher’s ability to captivate their attention, can easily be achieved through simple, but moral-lesson-packed stories. Most adults would agree that the stories told by their elders (parents and grandparents) in the past were very instrumental to the moral upbringing that they have, and still manifest today. Unfortunately, with time, and with the trend of modernity that we see today, those customs were lost, and the moral values went away with them.

This is where the initiative and the creativity of Billy Valentine is not only appreciable, but recommendable. As a long-time active youth minister, Billy has been involved in making the community life of young people meaningful, within and outside the Church. His love for the young ones has given him adequate understanding of their concerns and, as the founder of the Trust Love Foundation—a non-governmental organization that proposes programs which would enhance spiritual and social growth towards community enrichment—Billy is really hitting the right target—the youth. Today, with this book A Tale of Angels, he presents a well-thought-out series of inspirational stories for children, using a figure he calls Trust Love as a major character. The originality with which he does this is phenomenal, and speaks volumes of the wealth of his experience with the young ones, who are the primary audience of this book.

A Tale of Angels contains stories of special blessings, and the moral lessons they propose are in great need for today’s society, that needs a better tomorrow. This book touches, in a simple language, on the very important ideals of good and responsible living—respect, loyalty, faith and morals. A run through the book by any adult would confirm that it takes a lot of ingenuity to cast all of these, not just in the context of stories, but in such stories that sustain and captivate the interest of its readers. The values enshrined in these stories cut across nationality and religion and worldview. It is targeted at making the young ones, anywhere, anytime, responsible members of the community.

This is the reason why I am happy to present this collection to the public. I have no doubts that it will remain a special treasure to parents, pastors, teachers and carers, who are serious about imparting primary moral instruction to children, in a way that would make meaning to their age, while also sustaining the impact of the lessons for future use. To children themselves, this collection is a must-have and every caring parent would seriously have to consider making this a treasured gift to his or her children.

Rev. Msgr. David L. Cassato