THE ringing of a bell echoed throughout St Joseph's College in Lochinvar on Monday morning to mark 140 years since the Josephites first arrived in the Hunter.
As the students sang the recessional hymn to complete their Mass of Thanksgiving lead by visiting Wollongong Bishop Brian Mascord, Sister of St Joseph congregational leader Lauretta Baker stepped out to ring the bell.
Tugging on the rope 276 times, Sister Lauretta said each ring was in honour of the sisters that have died.
"I got to ring the bell because we are honouring the whole gamut of sisters of Saint Joseph from 1883 up until the present," she said.
"Two hundred and seventy-six of our sisters have died in those 140 years so we wanted to bring everyone present into this really significant celebration."
The rows of the church pews in the chapel also bear the names of the sisters who have passed, with their names written on small paper crosses.
Sister Lauretta joined the Josephites in 1964 and said the mass with the students was a wonderful celebration.
"It's an acknowledgement of all we've been and all we are," she said.
"We've always been educators. We've always worked with children and young people and we see that as a great gift and a great privilege."
She said she once read a sign on a teacher's door that read "I work for the future I teach".
"... and there's our future today [students] standing on the shoulders of the people who have gone before us," she said.
Bishop Brian Mascord said the legacy of the Josephites was clear and strong among the future generation.
"The Lochinvar Josephites were established particularly for the local church of Maitland at the time in 1883 and that has maintained and stayed central to who they are throughout their existence," he said.
"For me, that's a really important thing because I've been a beneficiary of that and now it's up to the young people who are present here to recognise that they are Josephite."
"They've been influenced by that spirit of this community of women and it's now their responsibility to continue to live that spirit the best way they possibly can."
