ANZAC Day Reflection

ANZAC Day (25 April) is a day of remembrance in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. In these times when church attendance is waning, the public liturgies of remembrance are becoming popular. Crowds gather for the dawn service, services at cenotaphs, the parade of returned service men and women and the laying of wreaths. Many more […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/anzac-day-reflection/

Toitu Te Tiriti o Waitangi – Behold the Treaty of Waitangi

On 6 February 1840, over 500 Māori Rangatira (chiefs) put their names to an important document called Te Tiriti of Waitangi or the Treaty of Waitangi in Aotearoa New Zealand. This document was written in two languages, one in English and one in Māori. It was written by James Busby and Captain William Hobson. They […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/behold-treaty-of-waitangi/

130th Anniversary of Mary MacKillop’s first visit to Aotearoa New Zealand

Mary MacKillop’s first visit in Aotearoa New Zealand began from her arrival on 25 January 1894 and concluded on 8 March 1895. The itinerary of Mary’s visit, ascertained from correspondence compiled by Sister Anne Marie Power, shows that some places were visited more than once. Twenty-eight years on from the founding of the Congregation in […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/130th-anniversary-mmk-first-visit-anz/

Mary MacKillop’s Virtues, Values and Time in Arrowtown, Aotearoa New Zealand

How do Mary MacKillop’s virtues and values inspire the happenings of everyday life? Sr Margaret Mary Sexton wrote: When the time came for Mother Mary MacKillop to begin her visitation of the other houses, she feared her little Arrow community would be very lonely so far away from all the other convents.Sr Margaret Mary Sexton, […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/mary-mackillops-virtues-values-and-time-in-arrowtown-aotearoa-new-zealand/

Waitangi Day 2023

Te Tiriti o Waitangi – Treaty of Waitangi signed in Aotearoa New Zealand Seen as New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840 at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, in Te Ika a Maui, (the North Island) of Aotearoa (New Zealand). The document outlines the principles to which […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/waitangi-day-23/

Your Water, Your Life, No Water, No Future

Sisters of Saint Joseph based in Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand, recently joined the community to express their concerns for how the water may be used in their community. In the small city of Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand, a bottling company’s plans to extract aquifer water from an existing capped bore beside the old unused Milk […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/water-whanganui-anz/

Papal Approbation for Whanganui Foundation

In 1928, Congregational Leader of the Whanganui Sisters of Saint Joseph, Sr Lucy Donovan with Sr Xavier Malone, attended the Eucharistic Congress in Sydney. The Apostolic Delegate urged them to consider unity with the Australian Diocesan Congregations. Sr Aquin of Lochinvar in 1934, proposed union between the five Congregations of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/papal-approbation-for-whanganui-foundation/

A Māori Way of looking at the world

  To commemorate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August), Sr Makareta Tawaroa reports from Whanganui Aotearoa New Zealand. I live in my marae (village) among my own whanau (family). I am just another member of our whanau. This is where I am most at home. We are part of the land, […]

https://www.sosj.org.au/a-maori-way-of-looking-at-the-world/