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This coming Sunday will be Venerable Suzanne Aubert Celebration Day in all Catholic churches throughout New Zealand.
The Sisters of Compassion, founded by Suzanne Aubert, and the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference agreed that the first Sunday of October will be marked as a day of celebration.
All parishes have been asked to include a special Prayer of the Faithful at masses on that day and to make copies of the intercessory prayer card available.
In addition, a special 6-minute video presentation has been produced for playing at mass. It features a number of Sisters of Compassion as well as Cardinal John Dew and several Bishops.
Bishop Charles Drennan, the liaison Bishop for Suzanne Aubert’s Cause, commented: “Kiwi culture readily celebrates its sports heroes and sometimes its high achievers in arts and music.”
“Suzanne Aubert’s gutsy life focused solely and relentlessly on the needs of others. This helps us celebrate a radical life of practical faith.”
He went on to say, “Mother Aubert’s life shifts holiness onto our streets and fields. Hers is a gumboots and sleeves-rolled-up type of saintliness that resonates in this country and overseas too – with growing interest in her Cause in France and parts of the Pacific.”
Suzanne Aubert chose to leave her native country of France and spend 3 months travelling to New Zealand on a whaling boat so that she could answer the call of Christ: the call to serve the sick, the orphaned, the elderly and those whom society seemed not to notice. Her response to what she encountered was to establish NZ’s first soup kitchen that still serves almost 40,000 meals a year.
She established orphanages for abandoned children throughout New Zealand and provided care for the disabled, the sick and the dying.
When she died, Suzanne was accorded the largest funeral ever in NZ for a woman. Wellington city stopped to pay their respects and publicly acknowledge what this remarkable woman had achieved.
Her wairua or spirit lives on in the work of the Sisters of Compassion. The work of the Sisters today is very much supported by their co-workers through their engagement in social work, pastoral care, prison and hospital chaplaincies, education, working with disadvantaged, migrant communities, and care of the sick and the elderly.
Pope Francis officially declared Suzanne Aubert Venerable last year. This the second of four steps on the journey to her being officially recognised as a Saint.
As a result of the national celebration day on 1 October, the anniversary of her death 91 years ago, it is hoped that many more New Zealanders will learn of the spirituality and good works of Venerable Suzanne Aubert.
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News category: New Zealand.
