A Calling to Do Something For God and For the World JO LINES-MACKENZIE
L-R: Mother Joanna, Mother Rachel and Mother Miriam Joseph.
Turning off the road and into a long tree lined driveway, a sign points the way to Tyburn Monastery. Underneath it is another offering further direction for the spiritually unsure God’s Road, it reads. At the end is a property named Cor Iesu Fons Vitae, which is Latin for “Heart of Jesus, Fount of Life”. There’s just one other car in the car park when Stuff pulls in to meet the nuns that run the property thirty minutes south of Rotorua in Ngakuru. Only bird chatter breaks the silence when we step outside. A quick walk up the path and a ring of a doorbell brings a warm greeting from Mother Miriam Joseph, and introductions to Mother Superior Rachel and Mother Mary Joanna. 15
JO LINES-MACKENZIE | STUFF NEWS
Resplendent in black and white habits – handmade by the mothers themselves – in a world where nuns are no longer a common sight, the trio are the very picture of how a society that rarely sees nuns except in film and popular culture depictions would imagine them. Over a cuppa and a plate of biscuits the three share their way of life for the next ninety minutes. We are settled into a comfortable lounge area which overlooks Lake Ohakuri. Although not quite an alpine lake, it’s not hard to imagine a scene from The Sound of Music taking place in the picturesque surroundings. The Ngakuru property is the second Tyburn monastery in New Zealand, the other being in Bombay, on the border of Auckland and Waikato.
