The weekend of 18-20 November 2016 over 70 members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Family gathered in Auckland to celebrate #Jubilee800.   The gathering opened with liturgy followed by a time of sharing three words that speak of living the Dominican Charism in our world today.  These words were captured on ribbon and woven together into a tapestry to represent our Dominican community gathered from around our beautiful country.  We remembered those who weren’t able to be with us this weekend.

In the opening address Margaret Butler OP reflected on the challenges of today’s world, most especially that of communication.   We were reminded that communication calls for listening as well as speaking.  It involves all our senses – seeing, feeling, touching, hearing.  We were challenged to consider some of the situations we find ourselves in where communication can be a real hurdle:

• caring for Mother Earth
• the urgent call to understand the first people of this country
• connections with  international bodies
• connecting with the diverse group of people who make up our local community
• succession – how do we keep young people connected and living the Dominican charism?

It’s impossible to do justice to Margaret’s keynote in just a few sentences.   We will share more in the coming weeks.

On Saturday we explored the four pillars: Prayer, Community, Study and Mission.  Each region took one pillar and shared on how it is lived out in today’s world.   Kevin Toomey OP, Elizabeth Mackie OP and Mike Kelly OP formed a panel who reflected back to us and gathered us into discussion of that pillar.   We will post details of these presentations on our website over the coming weeks.  Much thought and planning had gone into these exceptionally beautiful and inspiring presentations.   We give thanks to all those who made these presentations happen.  Kevin Toomey OP read a letter received from Timothy Radcliffe OP.  Click below to read the letter…

letter-from-timothy-radcliffe-op-to-brothers-and-sisters-in-st-dominic-and-st-catherine

From Auckland’s Mission presentation:

mission-auckland-looking-back-in-history-to-the-people-who-inspire-us

mission-auckland-people-who-inspire-us-today

A reflection shared by Elizabeth Mackie:

You, Dominican Family are called to contemplate

The presence of God everywhere
In the Word of Scripture
In the Wisdom of Creation
In beauty, truth and justice.
In sacramental living
In our sisters and brothers
In the eagle, the violet, the child
In the most forgotten and neglected
In the events of our times
In the communion of the faithful ones

You are called.
To live and to give
The fruit of this contemplate

 

A poem to reflect on study from Angela Coleman:

To study is

To look at what is
To see what is presented
To listen to the words
To explore the world

And

To find out why
To fall into the depths
To seek understanding
To search for knowledge

And

To move into the world
To act on what we learnt
To become the people we are called to be
To create the world that is needed
To keep questioning,

We share a few photos below.  Lots more photos are available on our Facebook page.