WELLINGTON In 1997, Jessie Munros biography on Suzanne Aubert won the Montana New Zealand Book Award. The author has now compiled a book of letters from the foundress of the Compassion Sisters, with help from members of the order. Sisters of Compassion welcomed Archbishop John Dew of Wellington, Marist priests, clergy and friends to the recent launch of the book, Letters on the Go. The gathering was at St Josephs Church in Mt Victoria Suzanne Auberts parish when she arrived in the young capital city.

Claudia Orange, Te Papa Museums director of history and Pacific cultures, spoke powerfully of the vital importance of letters and how letters speak about oneself.

Even with modern correspondence through email, letters are a wonderful way of building community, since they talk of your care and your direction, said Dr Orange.

The sizeable book brings together 323 letters picked from 825 Suzanne Aubert wrote.

The correspondence spans 60 years, beginning as soon as she set foot in Auckland in 1860 from France aged 25. The letters give precious and valuable insights of a jam-packed life as she realised her God-given calling to found the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion in Oceania.

It is not bedtime reading, but a book to be dipped into, the author said.

They reflect a can-do attitude as Suzanne bonded the community and brought everything into bond, Ms Munro explained.

This is a glad day.

Sisters of Compassion congregational leader Sr Rae Berry acknowledged the author as being a gift of divine providence and reflected how her two books The Story of Suzanne and Letters on the Go have brought people to know Suzanne Aubert more deeply.

The title of the book is taken from an actual segment of one of Auberts letters, written as she waited for a connecting train.