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Fr. David Kelly, C.PP.S., and Sr. Donna Liette, C.PP.S., traveled to Chile recently to conduct circle training with the Missionaries and the Sisters of the Precious Blood there. They shared stories and techniques about peacemaking circles and how they can be a tool in the ministry of reconciliation.

They held training sessions in and around Santiago then traveled to the southernmost areas of Chile to conduct training in Purranque and Valdivia.

“Sr. Donna and I came to Chile to carry with us what we have learned here at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, but we returned home feeling connected in a new and more profound way with the communities in Chile,” Fr. Kelly said. “Each gathering was a powerful testament to how people of various cultures and experiences can come together and build a bond of respect and love. There were tears as we shared painful memories and there was laughter and shouts of joy as we celebrated new relationships.”

In Chile, they found “common ground in the shared spirituality of the Precious Blood. These were men and women, young and old, who had a commitment to living out the spirituality of the Precious Blood in their daily lives. Perhaps that in itself was not all that surprising. But what was both moving and challenging was in the way they literally opened their lives to us, ensuring that Donna and I felt like we were part of the family, a hospitality that diminished any sense of being a stranger. They lived out Paul’s message to the Ephesians: ‘So then . . . you are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now fellow citizens with God’s people and members of the family of God’” (Eph 2: 19).

Text and photo courtesy of Jean Giesige, Cincinnati Province

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