Creative Peacemaking
With Sr. Elisa Martinez, OSB
July 21 - 23, 2023
In today’s world, we are being exposed to many faces of violence. Poverty, climate change, nuclear weapons, refugee rights, preparation and response to future pandemics, Healthcare crisis, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, gender equality, disinformation, freedom of the press, violence within our school, families, and communities, mass shootings, corruption, just to name a few.
In light of this reality, how do we regain our inner peace and what is our role as peacemakers? During this weekend experience, we hope to discover ways to gain some inner peace and become peacemakers within our family, our neighborhoods, and our world communities.
Spirit Center and the Monastery of St. Gertrude present three retreats based on the monastery’s mission statement. Each retreat explores a core value of the Monastery of St. Gertrude mission are applicable in all settings for individuals, families, churches, workplaces, and any other place where two or more are gathered. The retreats stand alone; participation in one does not require participation in the others.
Monastery of St. Gertrude Mission
Eager to welcome God’s transforming power in ourselves and our world, we, the Benedictine Sisters of the Monastery of St. Gertrude, seek God together through monastic profession and respond in healing hospitality, grateful simplicity, and creative peacemaking.
Leader
Sister Elisa Martinez dedicated over thirty years to providing high-risk youth and their families with alternatives to gangs, drugs, and violence. Her ministry has taken her through dangerous streets, fractured homes, and to El Salvador where she and her colleague Father Stan Bosch journeyed with Catholic Charity Caritas staff to provide healing in the gang-afflicted country. Sister Elisa holds a Master of Social Work and lives “on mission” in Los Angeles where she has ministered in the barrios for many years.
Learn more about Sr. Elisa Martinez, OSB