Sunday Sanctuary with Petra Bagust

Changing your mind about what you want for dinner is easy. Changing your mind about what you think about someone, how you vote, or what you believe, is not. In this episode of Sunday Sanctuary, Petra talks with friend of the show Spanky Moore and producer Sam talks to Jesuit priest Father Michael Smith in search of some guidance through the process of re-evaluating our opinions.

Music:

Losalamitoslatinfunklovesong by Gene Harris

Be...

This episode originally came out in 2024

Holding a grudge is a tantalising temptation. Especially when someone has clearly wronged us. After all, they deserve to be held accountable for what they did, right?

In this episode, Petra and her guests explore what the big fuss is with forgiveness. And we’re not just talking about the earth-shattering acts of forgiveness, but garden variety forgiveness that can be weaved into our ev...

The role of fathers in our lives can be a mixed bag. There are, of course, tremendous examples of good fatherhood around and yet the brokenness of absent or abusive fathers casts a long shadow.

So what does that mean for our view of God, who is so often referred to as father?

Petra's first guest is John Cowan, a broadcaster, parenting coach, father and grandfather who's spent decades examining family dynamics and can happily provid...

ADHD can make it harder to engage in many spiritual practices that we've been told we should do. What happens, though, when we embrace a more inclusive way of pursuing God? In this episode, 

Petra's first guest is Mark Pierson, a worship curator. He has spent decades designing spaces for people to engage in worship that looks very different to a typical church service. 

Later in the episode, Petra talks to Laidlaw College...

We all have rituals. Some might have deep cultural significance, but some we do without realising – like clinking glasses when we meet for a drink. Why has ritual been a central part of every known human society? What do rituals do for us? Are we losing our connection with ritual?  And do we need to rediscover it?

In this insightful episode, Petra and her guests ruminate on the richness of ritual. So light a candle,...

Judging others is something we all do, and we all want to do less often! "But how!?" we hear you cry!

To begin our exploration of the root of judginess and what we can do tomove past it, Petra has spoken to a crack duo of guests. First up is former Stuff visual journalist, Abigail Dougherty. Abigail describes for Petra how she learnt the need to put aside judgement in her job as a journalist and how her faith has allowed her to kee...

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It is a covenant between equals." - Father Gregory Boyle. This is the quote that guided this episode of Sunday Sanctuary. Petra gets into the history behind this quote, and along the way, talks with social worker Aaron Hendry of Kick Back and Sr Margaret-Anne of the Sisters of Compassion in Wellington.

Sacred Text:

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (The 20...

To Give, Or Not To Give? That is the question Petra is looking into on this episode. First up, Te Waka McLeod tells Petra how she was shaped by the generosity of her māmā. In the second half, Petra talks to others in the Love It Media staff team about their experiences of giving and receiving. In-between, there is a reading from Robin Wall-Kimmerer's book 'Braiding Sweetgrass' and music from Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Natalie ...

We're all disciplined at some things and not at others, right? Self-discipline is not a very popular topic to explore, but in this episode we push forward anyway! Producer Sam starts by talking to cook and author Nici Wickes and human behaviour specialist Hayden Brown about the way that the theory of self-discipline translates to reality. Later on, Petra ropes in Frank Ritchie to unpack what it means to be spiritually disciplined, ...

Isn’t having a good old belly laugh just the best thing?! Humour brightens up our lives. It’s fun, frivolous, fanciful, frolicsome, farcical and, well, freakin’ funny. But what if humour is also foundational to our flourishing and fulfilment?

This week we’re taking humour seriously. We talk to psychologist Nettie Cullen about what humour does for us and Petra sits down with her old comedy mate, David Downs, ...

How do you react to being misunderstood? It's pretty rough, right? In this episode of Sunday Sanctuary, Petra Bagust catches up with punk rocker turned Anglican priest, Rev. Spanky Moore, who introduces Petra to an "MRI of the soul" called The Litany of Humility. Sacred texts include works from Eddie Izzard, Nina Simone, Michael Leunig and more. Later in the episode, Petra talks to therapist and author Shirley Pastiroff about where...

In this episode, Petra digs into what it looks like to actively care for the world we live in. First up, producer Sam heads to the mighty Waikato to talk to organic farmers Pauline and Sam Hunt. If you've ever wondered what it means to be an organic farmer or what it looks like to practice conservation on working land, this chat is for you.

Later in the episode, Petra talks to Ed Walker, the Executive Director of A Rocha Internatio...

We don't need to do everything by ourselves. Especially when life gets hard, it is super important to let others in to carry the weight of things together. To guide us in how we might do that, Petra first talks to Irish author and documentary producer Kevin Toolis about his book My Father's Wake. As it turns out, the Irish grieving ritual is packed with moments where people gather around the bereaved. In the second half, we bring b...

In a world of contant busyness and rushing around, it can be really hard to wait. In this episode, producer Sam unpacks his own difficult relationship with waiting and lands on a few questions to help guide his patience. Later on, Petra talks with Nathan McLellan, the CEO of Venn Foundation, about the different scales of waiting and how the biggest, most existential kind of waiting can guide our everday need for patience.

Sacred Te...

What does it mean to be a caregiver? Where does the beauty hide, and how do we manage the difficulty? In this episode, Petra talks with her neighbour, Nick, and Andrea Page, the director of the Salvation Army's Epsom Lodge here in Auckland. Producer Sam also pays a visit to musician C. Zukey to ask about the story behind his 2024 album Stone Fruut.

The hope is that this episode helps caregivers to feel seen and encouraged, as well ...

When everything feels a bit much, how do we find peace within the chaos? In this episode of Sunday Sanctuary, Petra Bagust finally gets a chance to talk with Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama about how his history of mediation and writing poetry informs how he looks for peace. Second up is Christchurch-based counsellor Charlotte Cummings. Both Pádraig and Charlotte bring thoughtful, if very different, perspectives on looking for peace wit...

Ohhhh how much more simple life would be if all we had to do was look out for ourselves.... But in a society that encourages insularity, and where its negative consequences can be clearly seen, how do we balance responsibility for ourselves, as well as responsibility for others?

In this episode of Sunday Sanctuary, Petra talks to returning fan favourite Frank Ritchie and the head of the school of psychology at Auckland University, ...