IGF044 In Good Faith with Sister Donna Liette, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation

Sister Maxine  
This is In Good Faith, a conversation about the experience of living faith in everyday life. I'm Sister Maxine, and my guest is Sister Donna Liette with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation. The ministry is based on the South Side of Chicago, in the Back of the Yards Neighborhood. There Sister Donna established the Mothers Circle, where women who have lost children to gun violence and incarceration come together to talk, support and heal. The Mothers Circle is one of several programs of Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, which serves young people, families and community members affected by violence and incarceration. Prior to her ministry in Chicago, Sister Donna was an educator, a campus minister, and a spiritual director. For over a decade she directed Mercy Manor in Dayton, Ohio, a transitional home for women coming out of prison. Sister Donna joins me today from Chicago. Welcome, Sister Donna, thank you for being here.

Sister Donna  
Hello to everyone.

Sister Maxine  
Sister Donna will talk about your ministry and about your life as a Precious Blood Sister. I'd like to start by asking what drew you to the Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago? How did you sense that God was calling you to this ministry?

Sister Donna  
Prior to coming here to Chicago, I worked with women--I directed a residential home for women coming out of prison. And then I resigned from that after 15 years and kind of was going to take an easy break and continue to volunteer, when Father Dave Kelly, who is the Executive Director here at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, called me and said that they had received a grant for a restorative justice practitioner in Chicago, and that he would hope that I would come. So I said, "Oh, no, I'm too old now." I knew about the ministry here in Chicago, and I really loved it. But prior to being able to come to that, I was involved in this ministry in Dayton, with women coming out of prison. I felt the ministry in Dayton required at least 10 years to stabilize it. It was very new.

Sister Maxine  
What was it that made you reconsider?

Sister Donna  
After he called, he said, "Well, pray about it." So I did. And I started asking people, my friends, the sisters I lived with. And I said, "You know, I'm being asked to come to Chicago to this Ministry of Reconciliation," which most of us knew something about it. And everyone I talked to said, "Oh, that would be great, that's just up your line, that's really good." And I kept saying, "I don't feel it." But as I began to pray and to think, you know, it's really a community that helps you discern, and it's not always what makes you comfortable. After I prayed about it and thought about it, I said, "I think that I will come." So this was in July, I think that Father Kelly had called me. So in November, I came by myself and drove to Chicago, and got a little apartment, and began the work at Precious Blood.

Sister Maxine  
Was there in immediate sense of more certainty, of feeling like, "Yes, I definitely belong here?"

Sister Donna  
For me, it felt very uncomfortable. But I think that that's what Scripture and my spirituality calls me to--and calls all of us actually, if we really want to live the scriptures, and the gospel--is to sometimes taking those uncomfortable steps. And so I told Father Kelly, I would stay two years, and now I'm starting my 11th. And it has been a wonderful blessing to think that probably my last ministry in life is here, among the people here, this staff and this ministry. So I feel very blessed.

Sister Maxine  
Well, it seems like God called you to something that would bring great joy to your life and joy to others too.

Sister Donna  
Yes, definitely.

Sister Maxine  
I understand that when you began your ministry there, that Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, they were working primarily with young men and boys.

Sister Donna  
Yes. Well, definitely when I came as I said, it was pretty uncomfortable for me at first. I was very used to--I knew everybody in Dayton, Ohio, almost. I knew no one here. When I came into the center, it was young, juvenile boys, African American, which was not really strange to me, but you know, their gang affiliations, their signs, their colors, their conversation was not really comfortable for me. I was excited about them. And they seemed very friendly and everything, but I just didn't feel connected. So I asked Father Kelly one day, I said, "What's everybody doing? I really should know what to do." And I was so used to being so involved with everything. Of course, it didn't take long until I was very involved. That was the last time I asked that question.

Sister Maxine  
When did you begin to realize that there was also a great need for outreach to women?

Sister Donna  
Two attorneys from Northwestern University came to the center shortly after I was there--in fact, I think was the first week--and told me about a young woman who had been sentenced at 15 to life without parole. She was involved in a double homicide. And so at 15, she was sentenced to die in prison. And so these two attorneys said, "Is there anyone here that would be willing to work with her?" Well, I overheard the conversation I said, "Oh, please, I would love to do that." I was thinking--a woman, yes! Because that was what I was comfortable with. And so I met Jacqueline very soon after that. And so for these 10 or 11 years, I have been very much a part of her life. And I think because the law was changed, that now, children sentenced to life without parole have been resentenced, and she probably will be getting out of prison in 2025. So she still hopes I'll be hanging around and can receive her coming out of prison.

Sister Maxine  
What is it like to see young people like Jacqueline incarcerated in prison or in juvenile detention centers?

Sister Donna  
I had, of course, worked a lot with women, adult people, in prison, and been in and out of a lot of adult prisons. But I had never been in a juvenile prison. And I went in there, and I just was overwhelmed. It's hard to talk about it. There's all these little children, you know, I'm going down this hall, and just pod after pod. They're in these little rooms. Just children. I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, there's so little. And they're locked up." And I said this is just definitely not right. So, you know, we still work towards some reform in in the juvenile detention center. But it's very long process.

Sister Maxine  
What happens when they're released from the detention center?

Sister Donna  
Some of those children coming out of the juvenile detention center, many of them would come to our center. So that's one of the work that was being done before I came, was trying to help the kids on our streets and in our community to stay out of the juvenile detention center. And then those that did end up in juvenile detention center, we invited them to certainly be a part of our community when they were released.

Sister Maxine  
You've talked about Jacqueline and you visited many other young men and women in the juvenile detention center. How was your experience of the young people in the detention centers connected with the Mothers Circle that you later established?

Sister Donna  
When I visit these young boys in the prison, they'd say, "Oh, do you know my mother?" And I'd say, "Uh, no." They said, "But would you call her? I'm so worried about her. I wish I'd listened to her. Please call my mother." And so I began to call the mothers, beginning to see the need, that they had to be a part of a group that were also suffering for fear and anger and shame. And so I began to call slowly the mothers to come to Circle and now we have about 80 women who have children either locked up in the prisons, juvenile detention center, or also the other group, who have lost children to the streets and violence.

Sister Maxine  
You mentioned that their mothers--are they mothers by virtue of their roles with these young people? Mothers, aunts, grandmothers?

Sister Donna  
Correct, yeah, they're the mothers or the grandmothers of these children. You know, at first I invited them to come together and the first time a couple came and we talked a little bit and then the next time a few came, and then finally I said to another woman, Sarah, who was helping me with this--we work together--I said, "Maybe this isn't what they need." You know, sometimes we decide what people need, and it's not really what they need. And so I said, "Well, let's try it one more time." Well, it was kind of God saying, "Yes, this is what needs to be done." And so that time about seven came. And now, once a month, we gather. Before COVID, in Circle, we'd have a wonderful brunch, for the mothers and grandmothers and women. You know, just treat them with the dignity that they deserve, because often these women don't feel that they're really treated and honored. And then after that, we would go into Circle--really some powerful times within our circles of healing.

Sister Maxine  
How has COVID affected the gatherings?

Sister Donna  
With COVID, the mothers still said, "How are we going to get together now?" And so someone suggested that we do Zoom. And so we've been doing Zoom Circles. Not as many come to the Zoom Circles as they do in person, but they still gather. We gather once a month, and during March, we actually met every week by Zoom, and continued our sharing and healing and hope. We are a restorative justice hub. So our whole philosophy is about building relationships and helping people to be in safe places. And so that's what we provide: a safe place for these women to come and just tell their story. So mostly, they just want to talk about their pain. I'm reading a beautiful book that actually Father Kelly suggested. It's called When Tears Sing--it's by William Blaine Wallace. And it says so much about what we do when we gather in these Circles, because the women really weep, they cry out, they moan. And the author in this book says that, you know, when you stitch bone to moan, you create a tapestry of hope, and a tapestry, I suggest, of healing. And that's what really happened. So we started with just women, mothers who had children incarcerated in our juvenile detention center. About two years after we were doing this, a mother came into our center, and she had just lost her child to gun violence. And she was so distraught. And so we, first of all, just took time with her, and helped with the funeral. And then I invited her after a couple of weeks to come to this circle of women. And I said, "It might be difficult for you, I don't know, because all of these women have children incarcerated, and your child--his life was taken, and possibly the person who took his life will be incarcerated. And you may meet that mother." And she said, "Well, I just need to be with somebody and tell my story. Because, you know, people tell me just to get over it or, they don't want to hear it anymore." And I said, "Well, come." So she came to the Circle. And then she afterwards she told me, "Yeah, that was kind of uncomfortable." But she said, "I think I'll come back one more time." So she did. And during that Circle, she told a little bit more of her story of her son who was killed by gun violence. She had to stand there for three hours waiting for them to do the investigation that they had to do. And his little body was covered with a white cloth. She said that while she stood there, it seemed like all the pain that she herself was carrying just lifted. Like it was just like Cornbread--that was her son's nickname--like Cornbread just took it with him and relieved her and she has been totally transformed since that day. But she was telling the story, of not being able to have her child, her little Cornbread with her. He was only 14, and killed in the backyard playing football. And so she said that he'll never be at the table again. All she can do is just go to the gravesite and think of him and be with him in that way. But it was hard, so hard and of course she wept.

Sister Maxine  
That is a powerful story. How do other women in the Circle respond or share their story too?

Sister Donna  
The Circle went around, and different women told their own grief, their shame. Some she felt shame because their son had taken a life or harmed someone. And then another mother who's very, very different than the woman who told about her son Cornbread--there's probably as many differences as there could be--and so the other woman told about that her son was locked up at 15 and was to die in prison, much like Jacqueline. She told--not to compare it and not to say, "Well, my story's worse"--she just said, "You know, I've been going for over 20 years, six-hour drive to Menard person to see my son every time that I can. And that's sometimes four to six times a month. And then we have to stay at a hotel overnight. Because then the next morning, we can see him for another two hours. When I leave, I want to take him with me, but I can't. And he'll never be home either, because he's sentenced to die in prison." And at that moment, these two women crossed the circle and just embraced. Because they said, "Yes, we've both lost. And we're united in this pain. It's a different pain, but it's still a pain, and the suffering." And so that's what happens in these circles: the women began to understand each other's pain, they walk in each other's shoes, they realize that it's a common suffering of loss. And so that's usually what the women talk about in the circle: their own loss, their pain, their struggle, but they also talk about what they hope: that someday some of these rules of laws will be changed. And we'll be able to lift up our children in a new way.

Sister Maxine  
They deal with such difficult issues. And then to find that path of hope is such a powerful thing. I imagine that you are transformed by the circle of women as well.

Sister Donna  
Oh, every day, not just from the Circle--that, too, yes. But you know, every day--before COVID, and even now since COVID--a lot of times I go to the homes. I love to do the home visits. And you know, just to see the struggles that the women in this community have and yet they're so resilient, they're so loving. Last night, I was talking to a woman whom I've known a number of years, probably six, seven years. Her son was murdered also, by his best friend, really. She used to cook meals for both of them. And they'd be there in the home together and here this friend that she had cooked for now took her son's life. She was so devastated. And her other son prior to that had been sentenced for, I think, 37 years to prison for a murder. And now she has two more sons incarcerated. And here she called me last night, because she had heard that my sister was ill. And she called to say, "How are you? I've been worried about you." And I said to Wanda, "Thank you. But you know you carry such a heavy weight yourself." And yet she's got lupus. And still she also works every day. And she prays. She said, "All I can do is just pray." When we have these situations, and we have so many of them, how these women care for one another. It's a very caring community and yet they suffer so much. I think I read in one of the books that if you don't suffer, you don't grow up. And these women have grown up with so much suffering. They live in violence and trauma. You know, we have traumatic experiences, but they live in trauma. They live in poverty. They live in the whole evils of racism, a being excluded from so many things, not having a voice. So we try to get them a voice. We try to treat them with the dignity that they so deserve and to honor them in every way that we possibly can.

Sister Maxine  
We'll pause for just a brief break. This is In Good Faith, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors and individual donors like you, whose support makes the In Good Faith program possible. Please visit anunslife.org to make a donation or to become a sponsor of the ministry. We'll be right back.

Welcome back, you are listening to Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry and my guest Sister Donna Liette with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation on Chicago's South Side. Before the break, Sister Donna, you mentioned hospitality as a value of Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation. How is that value expressed in action day-to-day?

Sister Donna  
Our restorative justice hub is so much about hospitality that everybody is welcome. We just went through a workshop of looking at what's the norm and how many are outside that norm, and to see everybody as a part of God's creation. So anyone that comes into our center is welcome. Sometimes it's hard, because not everybody's in a real good space when they come into our center. But just to receive them, to make them feel so welcome, and to try to be a part of their healing of their lives and to give them some hope. We do family circles now. We haven't done a lot yet; we're working on it. With COVID it kind of got hindered. But to really bring families together--we have a whole curriculum of 12 modules where we help them talk about how do you communicate with one another? Do you sit down at a table and have dinner? Do you talk about, you know, how are you? And we do a lot of check-ins so that people say, "How are you really feeling? Honestly." You don't have to say, "Oh, I feel great," because probably you don't. But to say how I really feel.

Sister Maxine  
What kind of topics might you encourage families to talk about?

Sister Donna  
To talk about how do we communicate? How are we financially? How can we work together better? What is our family, who is our family? A lot of the children don't even know their background and their grandparents and great-grandparents, but to let him tell stories about their great-grandparents or their grandparents. So we do a lot with family circles here. And now, after COVID, we hope to get into the families and actually sit down with them at their table and do family circles to build relationships even among their own siblings, their grandparents, their uncles, their aunts, whoever. That family that's so extended, but sometimes so broken.

Sister Maxine  
It would seem like in the kinds of challenges they face, that trust would be a huge issue. I could see where building relationships would be key to that.

Sister Donna  
Yeah, because you know, it's hard for them to trust because so many times they've been abandoned, even as children. It's generational poverty. Just look at them and think you know, they have to go to the laundromat, most of them. And they're afraid because of COVID. What's going to happen when they go to the laundry? Their transportation is difficult; they have to stand at the bus stops, and sometimes the buses aren't running on time. Their housing sometime is not adequate. We just had a young woman that was given a place to live. But when we went to take some things, those gases smell in the house, they found out the gas stove wasn't even hooked up right and the refrigerator didn't really work. There were bugs, rodents. And there was blood on the steps, which we don't know if there was a shooting before that. And so here was this woman moving in with her little child. And that situation, it just broke my heart. So we've been trying to help her get furniture and get things better situated. But she didn't want to leave. She said, "At least I got a place to stay." She didn't have to go to a shelter. Housing is so difficult. It's expensive. If a family wants to move into a home here in Chicago, if they don't have a voucher for housing, they have to have at least $3,000 for a family to move in. Because if they don't have credit, they have to pay two month's rent ahead. So it's like $3,000. And our families don't have that kind of money. And sometimes the landlords are so disrespectful.

Sister Maxine  
From what you describe, Sister Donna, families faced not just one or two specific challenges. There are many challenges combined. Could you say more about that?

Sister Donna  
Yes, job opportunities, food. It's hard for them to get to places to get good food. One thing upon another and then some. I think I would lose hope, but they don't. They stay resilient. They look to us, though, often to say, "Help me through this next step. I want to move forward. I want to have a future." I get so excited. We say, "What's your future look like?" And one of them said, "We want to have our own home in 2025." And so I said, "Okay, if you want to, this is what maybe you'd have to do. What do you think you'd have to do?" And then they decide, "Okay, I have to do this and this and this and maybe I could get there." It's hard to impose our white values on them and I don't want to do that. We give them a voice.

Sister Maxine  
Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation does so many things. Are there other organizations The Ministry works closely with?

Sister Donna  
You know, I'm not the only one. We're a wonderful, huge staff--our staff is tremendous here. And I have a great team that works just with women and children. We have a church, St. John of the Cross out in Western Springs here in Illinois. And they are so generous to us. Almost every week, they bring sometimes two vans full of really good food that their church donates and delivers here. And so then we can take it out to the families or some of the families can come in and get it. Or we can also serve, you know, because we're a safe place where our youth and our families can come in and have something to eat. But also, during the COVID, we had some organizations that were so generous to us and brought boxes of food. And so we delivered those to the families. And a lot of our families also have the Link card so they can get food in that way too. But sometimes it's not enough for a big family. So we do a lot with making sure that our families have the basics, at least of food and clothing and housing, as best we can. Housing is still a very big problem here. And the other thing is our ministry is to really accompany persons. So many of our families, they don't really know how to seek out the resources that they need. So it's very important that we accompany them, not just say, "Oh, you can go here and do this." But we accompany them. We have a couple vans, and we make sure that we go with the families, if they're insecure. We go to court with them. The other thing is to be really engaged with them. And on a long-term basis, I kind of have to laugh sometime because most of the women I work with, I've known now for almost 9, 10 years. They're part of the family, they find a safe place or a place of healing and hope. And so it's very important: building relationships and the radical hospitality, the relentless engagement that the restorative justice hubs are built on that philosophy. And we really live that out as best we can.

Sister Maxine  
Going back just for a little bit--I also understand that there is a vegetable garden in an urban farm for food in the summer.

Sister Donna  
Yes, that's correct. We have Sister Carolyn and Mary Hartman Reiber, who do a tremendous job. We have a gorgeous--I call it the community garden. I think they call it now the urban farm.

Sister Maxine  
I was looking at the website and that is not a small project. 4600 pounds of organically grown food. And that's taken to the community. That is amazing.

Sister Donna  
Isn't that marvelous? And it's so beautiful. Everybody just passes by and says it looks so beautiful and inviting. And so we also have bees out there. They're not ours, but somebody wanted a safe place to put them and so they care for them. But it's also good for us. And now Father Kelly just brought in a chicken coop--somebody gave a chicken coop--so we'll have little chickens out there too. So we do have that beautiful garden. Yes. And so when I first came here 10 years ago, it was not a pretty place. The church--it was a Catholic church--had just been torn down. And they had torn down the fences, the basketball court. It was really a sad looking thing. And so now over these 10 years, we have this beautiful vegetable garden, we have a beautiful peace garden, we have a labyrinth. People say it's like an oasis in this desert place and place with many boarded-up houses. We still have this oasis, that safe place for people to come.

Sister Maxine  
What you're describing sounds beautiful. I would love to come, maybe this summer, come and take a look at the at the garden, at the urban farm, the bees. That just sounds so wonderful.

Sister Donna  
Oh, please do! Anybody that's listening, we invite anyone to come and just be with us and experience something very new for most.

Sister Maxine  
What difference do you think that that makes in your neighborhood, that these things of natural beauty are here?

Sister Donna  
Oh, it makes a big difference. I remember the first time I planted flowers--because when I came, I came from a rather nicely landscaped area. And there were no flowers. I said to Father Kelly, "Could I just plant a flower?" And he said, "Oh, yeah." So now we have many flower beds. Too many actually! But you know, when I came, we just had the old school. It was closed--St. John of God. We have the second floor. There's an alternative school on the first floor. And now we have a home in the neighborhood for families, and that's where mostly I work out of, with women and children. Then we have a Hospitality House for men returning from prison. There's a four-bedroom place there that we rehabbed and own now. We have a restorative justice cafe, we call it, where we have a shirt business, screen printing. And the boys are involved in that. And we have a woodshop where boys--and young women, too, we have a couple of women working in those areas--make the flower boxes, one of our young boys has been trained to do that. We're purchasing a second house that will be kind of a Hospitality House for women who are finding themselves homeless--having a program for them. Lots of things going on. Yes.

Sister Maxine  
As you talk, Sister Donna, it's evident that you have a tangible connection to the people in the neighborhood. Why is your physical presence there so important?

Sister Donna  
I don't know if you know Bryan Stevenson or not, but he wrote the book Just Mercy, a powerful book that really did a lot for my own transformation. He calls us to really be proximate. And I think that's what has been so important for us as a staff, is to really be close to the people that we work with. We can't just sit in our offices. We need to be out on the streets, we need to be in the homes, we need to be in the jails and the courts, and be proximate to the people that we walk with, and know their stories, and know their pain. And then he says to also change that narrative. So many people believe that the people in prison are just bad people. We need to change that narrative. So many of them have mental illness. So many of them have been so traumatized by so many situations in their life that they're not even able to make clear decisions. Sometimes I hear that the people in this community where I work are lazy, and I'm like, oh, no, I want to change that narrative. They really want to work. They do work. And they have so many obstacles to remove that it's not easy, but never to look upon them as lazy. A lot of narratives we need to change.

Sister Maxine  
As you reflect on your relationships, and your role in the ministry., how does being a Catholic sister make a difference?

Sister Donna  
We as religious--and not just religious--are called to really work hard. It's hard work. But that's the call of the gospel. If we follow Jesus, it wasn't easy. In the meantime, there's so much transformation and so much grace that comes to us through the people, because they really bless us. And then the other thing is to hold on to hope. If we ever give up hope, then our ministry cannot continue. And the people that we work with look to us to have some kind of hope. But we also look to them too, to have hope, that together as a community we can change things little by little.

Sister Maxine  
We'll pause for a brief break. This is In Good Faith, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors and individual donors like you, whose support makes the In Good Faith program possible. Please visit anunslife.org to make a donation or to become a sponsor of the ministry. We'll be right back.

Welcome back. You are listening to Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry and my guest Sister Donna Liette with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation on Chicago's South Side. Sister Donna works with mothers who have lost children to violence and incarceration. Sister Donna, you live as well as minister in the local community. Are there ever times where you feel afraid?

Sister Donna  
No, I don't think I've ever been afraid. But you know, I'm cautious. I'm not going to be walking out on the streets at midnight. I might pick up some mother that calls and is afraid and I might pick her up. But no, that's not the ordinary thing. The people who are really afraid are our children, our mothers, our families. They're the ones that live in fear. I don't. I live about 10 or 20 minutes away from the center. So I always feel safe. But I know that most of our families do not feel safe. The other day one of the mothers called me and said that she had gone to a friend's to get a sweater; now they called her and said someone was killed right in front of her house, and she was afraid to go home. So these are situations that happen often: there's killings right in front of people's homes. So a lot of trauma. And that's why it's so important that we have these circles where they can talk about their pain and their fear, and have a safe place to come, a safe place to call. So it's very important that we do that.

Sister Maxine  
Is there a particular story you could share, one that describes what it means to be about reconciliation?

Sister Donna  
A powerful story that I experienced was a young man, with three other young men, had broken into a home. And it happened to get police officer's home. And by the way, we usually don't tell the stories. But we were told that we could tell this story--you know, Circle stories. So the judge who knows us said to the young man--this was his first time ever in court--that if he would come to Precious Blood Center, and sit in a circle with his victim, then we could just decide how he would be held accountable for the harm that he had caused. So the young boy agreed that he would be willing to do that. Now the other three had been in the courtroom a number of times, so they were not given that option. We worked with the young boy and his mother and told him what Circle was like, and so forth. So a lot of preparation. I had also called the police officer and told him that one of the young boys would like to sit in Circle with him. And he was kind of surprised. But he came along and said he would be willing to do that. So the day came. Father Kelly went to get the young boy and his mother. We had another young person from the community who was on our staff in the circle, myself, and Father Kelly. We had a principal in the circle, so I think there were eight of us that have been prepared to sit in this circle of reconciliation. So the day came, and the police officer came in, and he was a little anxious, like, "let's get this over with." And luckily, the young boy and his mother came in. So we sat in the circle, and I won't tell the whole story because it would take long. But anyway, as this time went on, and we checked in, and we asked the police officer, "Tell about the harm that was done." And so he told, you know, a lot of things happened to his computer, windows, doors. There was a lot of harm done to his home. But what he emphasized is that he had a son. He always told his son that he was a police officer, and he would be safe. And he said, "Now my child doesn't feel safe." And he said, "That's what really hurts me. That's the most harm you did." So after he told his story, we looked at the young boy and asked him, "Tell us a little bit about what happened that night. What do you remember?" So he first just told the police officer how sorry he was, that he didn't know that he had a son in the home, and that he regretted. But as the story went on--he had kind of been bullied, because he had often said no to these boys. But this time he had said yes. And he went along and he said he just regretted it. We asked different questions. And the whole circle went on for about an hour and a half. He had also said how he likes to play basketball. It's one of the things that kind of relieves stress. So at the end of the circle, those who were going to check out, we said, "What do you need," to the police officer "in order to begin some healing? Do we need to meet again, or what would help?" He said, "You know, this is all I needed, that we sat together in this circle." Then after the circle was over, and the principal said she would help the young boy get back in school, we all said we'd support each other, and whatever the police officer needed. And he said, "I don't need anything." And after the circle was over, he went over to the boy, and he gave him his card. And he said, "I know you know where I live, but you don't have my phone number. Call me anytime. I'm not just a dad. I'm not just a police officer. I'm also a coach, and I would love to shoot baskets with you." If this young boy had just been sent to jail for a year or so, it would have been totally different in his life and his mother's life. And I think you even the police officer, who would never have been able to hear this story, how different it would have been for him. And so it's so important that we begin to teach the people in our community how to do Circles and how to build relationships--and that eventually in our community, we would hope that when there's harm done in our community that the community would handle the issue, and see how the person should be held accountable, and how we can heal both sides of any story where there's been harm done.

Sister Maxine  
Yes, and especially I think of that police officer who was in the position of power, who could have made it a very different situation, but he would not have been healed either.

Sister Donna  
Exactly. Our court system doesn't offer that opportunity very often, where relationships can be healed--and some time, it might take more than one session. But we totally believe that when people sit down in Circle--and you know, I kind of talked through it fast. But it took an hour and a half to check in, to talk about who supports us, and our times of anxiety--after an hour and a half, where there can really be reconciliation and understanding and actually offering to shoot baskets with the boy who broke into his home and caused harm. It's a beautiful story.

Sister Maxine  
And it's a very hope-filled story of relationship. Why do you suppose that our system tends to not go in that direction, so much as in the direction of punishment?

Sister Donna  
Well, I think that we're a very punitive society. And we think that that's going to cut down on the harm that's done in communities, by just locking up the people who cause the harm and getting them out of the way. Instead of building the relationship and saying, I think this harm that was done, we can talk about it, and people can be healed.

Sister Maxine  
Sister Donna, for the folks there at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, and for the folks who come there, and the relationships that are there, as you think about some of the needs--if our listeners who are in the Chicago area, for example, would want to help out with some of the needs there--what kinds of things could they do?

Sister Donna  
Well, there's just simple things. Helping out with bus passes. We spend quite a bit of money on just supplying our community with bus passes, because most of our people do go by public transportation. Gift cards are always very helpful. Someone just came today that really needed help. And I was able to give them a $25 gift certificate to go to Walmart for something. And so those kinds of things--but also, we do a couple big fundraisers each year, and we do appeals. Sometime the churches have us come and tell our story and have an appeal. Financially it takes a lot of money, to have a staff like this, that work so hard with our community, and the needs that are there--to help all these families move forward. They want to, but it takes money to do that. So any financial assistance that they can offer, or just to come--like you said you might like to come this summer and see our gardens and see our buildings that we've rehabbed and to see some of our young men and our women and our children. Be proximate with them and get to know them. Once you build a relationship, you will know what to do for them and with them.

Sister Maxine  
And I'll be sure to put a link to the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation to the website so that folks can go over and learn a little bit more about the wonderful things going on there. Maybe make a donation.

Sister Donna  
Yeah, there's a Donate button. That's really important, of course. But even more than that is building relationships, being proximate, helping people to change the narratives that are sometimes so labeling of our people. And it's so important that we not come and just be do-gooders and try to fix their problems or tell them what to do. But to just walk with them, to listen to their stories, to love them and to give them hope that we're in this together. We just need to work together to take little steps forward to change systems that are so punitive and so racist. We can change that. I think the other thing-- if they just pray. I really believe in prayer. And I believe that if we're contemplative people--LCWR, Leadership of Women Religious, calls us to be contemplative women, and then in that contemplation and being vulnerable, that that will bring about a transformation of our own selves, but also the world. And so I just ask you to love these beautiful little communities that are so broken, that look to us for hope.

Sister Maxine  
Sister Donna, it is such a joy to hear about the ministry that you're involved in and the people there in your neighborhood. This has been such a wonderful conversation.

Sister Donna  
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to tell our story. I hope people will go on our website--there's so many beautiful stories, Instagram, if you're on Instagram or our Facebook page. Every day there's something beautiful that happens here and we're thankful.

Sister Maxine  
In Good Faith is a production of A Nun's Life Ministry, helping people discover and grow in their vocation by engaging questions about God, faith and religious life. This program is made possible through the grace of God and the support of the sponsors of A Nun's Life Ministry, and you, our listeners. Visit us at anunslife.org. God bless.