The month of January in Chile has been a month of revitalization and growth in the shared mission: on the one hand, with the meeting of the Pastoral Animation teams of the Vedruna centers of the country, where there was a profound revision, enrichment and projection of the application of management tools in the Educational Pastoral. On the other hand, the sisters lived their Spiritual Exercises, with which they continue strengthening and projecting their personal, community and national life. In addition, the Country Assembly was held with the theme “Community: a space that renews hope”.
Application of management tools in the Vedruna Pastoral Educativa Vedruna
At the beginning of the year 2025, we had the Formation of Educators and Education Assistants of the four Vedruna Centers of the country, from January 7 to 9 in Puente Alto, Santiago de Chile.
We met 32 people who form and/or will form the Pastoral Animation Teams in each of the Vedruna Schools in the country: Padre Las Casas, Constitución, Puente Alto and San Felipe together with the Formation Team SEPEC (Foundation for the Service of the Improvement of Catholic Education) of the Archbishopric of Santiago, who facilitated the formation.
The objective we set for this meeting was:
“To apply management tools that facilitate the installation of formative and pastoral processes, which make possible the design of actions consistent with the achievement of goals and objectives outlined in the PEI (Institutional Educational Project) of our schools and in coherence with the PEV (Vedruna Educational Proposal) and the Vedruna Educational Pastoral Project”.
We develop it through:
- recognition of the main identity elements of the Catholic School
- identification of the School’s formative-pastoral challenges
- linking and strengthening the pastoral processes of the School with the academic formative proposal, in harmony with the PEI.
- application of management tools to the formative-pastoral processes of the School.
- strengthening the pedagogical-pastoral leadership of coordinators and agents
The work sessions helped us to enhance the active role of all participants through reflection, analysis and implementation, both personal and group, of the contents worked on.
Each day, we enjoyed a new experience of meeting, community prayer and fraternal sharing, in a simple, cordial and trusting atmosphere that favored the work and the interrelation between the 4 schools. We ended the meeting with the celebration of the Eucharist, sharing the dreams of each team, expressed in a mural full of signs of life, values, hopes and projects.
Community meeting: strengthening, renewing and spreading hope
The three communities of Chile have gathered in Ciudad San José, Puente Alto, to live the Spiritual Exercises from January 19-23, accompanied by Fr. Luis Ramirez, SJ.
This time of encounter with the Lord Jesus has been a privileged space for prayer, based on the Word of God and the guidance of the priest, and has strengthened and renewed us in hope in the context of the Jubilee Year.
After this time of Spiritual Exercises, we dedicated January 24 to enjoy the sea, the beach and have a sororal meeting, including the sisters of the infirmary. In the morning, very early in the morning, we went to the house we have in El Tabo, there we contemplated the sea, shared a delicious lunch and also, those who could, a walk along the beach. It was a holiday that we had not done for years. From this pleasant experience we will continue to maintain this instance of coexistence.
Country Assembly: “Community: a space that renews hope”.
With the taste and smell of the sea, from the 25th to the 27th we held our Country Assembly with the theme “Community: a space that renews hope”. We reflected on hope and community life; we also carried out our country project and the work for the next Provincial Assembly.
The method used was that of conversation in the spirit: we gathered in groups of 4 around a table set up for the occasion, so that each of us could speak and contribute our thoughts on the different topics.
Finally, we set the dates for the meetings of the year 2025 and agreed on the topics to be addressed in each of them, based on our reflections, in order to continue cultivating community life as a privileged space to renew our hope and be a sign of it for those around us.
Flor Maria Garrido, ccv
