pathways, August 2009
Australians have been invited to allow the life story of Blessed Mary MacKillop to intersect with their own.
Mary MacKillop is not an end in herself, according to Sisters of St Joseph Congregational Leader Anne Derwin RSJ.
"She never was an end in herself in her lifetime and she should not be for us," Sr Anne said at a forum organised by the Australian Catholic University on August 12.
"Mary MacKillop's life was for God. If her story draws us in any way it will draw us to God."
The ACU function was one of the many held around Australia and beyond to mark the 100th anniversary of Blessed Mary's death on August 9, 1909.
Sr Anne spoke of five aspects of Mary's story for which she hoped listeners could make connections: Mary as a member of a human family; as a pioneer; as a lover of the poor; a sufferer and as a woman of faith.
Mary as a member of a human family was an aspect that all could share, Sr Anne said.
"Mary MacKillop, like all of us belonged to a human family. Her parents were immigrants from the highlands of Scotland."Mary, the first child was born on January 15, 1842, and was followed by
seven siblings."
She knew great suffering and hardship in her early life and by the age of 42, she had lost several siblings and both parents.
Although Mary had a yearning for religious life as a young woman she did not see herself joining the congregations that had had already come to the colonies from Ireland and Europe.
"As a 19 year old Mary was resident in the vast parish under the care of the young charismatic priest Father Julian Tension Woods. A strong bond developed between these two young people who were so zealous for the kingdom of God and so eager to bring the knowledge and love of God to children and adults alike.
"Julian had experienced a group called the Sisters of St Joseph some years before in France. He described them as the daughters of farmers and humble people not highly educated, nor probably very refined, (who) lived a life of great edification, and supplied most of the wants which religious communities could fulfil. ... They lived in great poverty and simplicity, and there was no fine ladyism about them. (J. T. Woods, 'Memoirs')
"So at 24 years of age, Mar,y with Julian as Father Director, pioneered a new form of religious life, a form that would see her sisters flexible, mobile, living frugally among poor people, living in tents on the gold fields, moving with the people as the railway lines extended, working among the poor, begging for food and whatever else the sisters needed to help the poor."
As well as pioneering a new way of religious life for this land, Mary and Julian pioneered a system of catholic education.
"They were led by God to respond, in their words, to the 'misery and wretchedness' of the 'bush children' and the 'afflicted poor'..." opening a school in a stable in Penola without any funds and any expectations that poor families would contribute.
Within the first 20 years of the Sisters of St Joseph, Mary had founded the following places:
1866: Penola ,Mount Gambier1867: Adelaide , Bowden/Brompton, Yankalila , Refuge
1868: Orphanage, Kapunda, Gawler, Macclesfield, Providence, Port Adelaide, Willunga Queenstown1869: Wallaroo, Kadina, North Adelaide, Thebarton, St John's, Mt Barker, West Adelaide, Glenelg, Clare, Marion, Le Fevre Peninsula, Robe, Solitude
1870: Burra, Moonta, Glen Osmond, Mitcham, Hectorville, Morphett Vale, Greenock, Marrabel, Irishtown (Nth Adelaide), Gilbert, Navan, Tarlee, Rhynie, Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, Maryborough
1871: Bagot's Gap, Grand Junction, Magill, Port Augusta, Hoyleton, Auburn (SA), Undalya
1872: Hamley Bridge, Stockport, Kensington, Norwood, Virginia, Mintaro, Bathurst
1873: Georgetown, Amagh, Polish Hill River, Farrell's Flat
1874: Blinman, Lower Wakefield, Port Lincoln
1875; Manoora, Pirie St Adelaide
1876: Baker's Flat, Head Station
1877: Laura, Appila-Yarrowie, Caltowie, Mintaro Station, Yackamoorundie, Freeling, Saltia, Maitland (SA), Russell St Adelaide
1878: Pekina
1880: Sevenhill, Port Elliott, Orroroo, Jamestown, Sydney and Armidale (1880) Tenterfield, Inverell, Providence (Cumerland St) Kent Street Sydney, Wallerawang, Cooronbong, Penrith, Picton, St Mary's (South Creek)Lithgow, Dapto
1881: (SA) Port Wakefield, Warooka, Whyte Yarowie
1881: Camperdown (Sydney)
1882: Willochra (SA), Bulli, Glenn Innes
1883: Quorn SA, Temuka NZ, St Benedict's NZ, Grey Lynn NZ, Kerrytown NZ, Albion Park, Camden, Hunters Hill, Ryde, West Kempsey
1884: Jamberoo/ Kiama, Moss Vale, North Sydney
1885: Granville, Narrabri, Strathalbyn SA
1886: Uralla, Meanee NZ, Rangiora NZ
The Sisters continue today to be sent to all states of Australia, both islands of New Zealand, to Lima and rural areas of Peru, to East Timor, to Brazil, to Ireland and to Scotland.
Mary not only founded schools for the poor children but she founded providences for women without homes or means. She founded homes for children who were orphaned or whose families could not care for them. She visited prisons and she and her sisters went begging for what they needed for the poor.
Her legacy of compassion continues through so many works within Australia and beyond. Two such works are the Mary MacKillop Foundation and the Mary MacKillop International Mission.
The Mary MacKillop Foundation sponsors small life changing projects such as scholarship funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to attend Australian universities - seven of the 25 aboriginal doctors in Australia have had their studies funded by the MacKillop Foundation - and others such as the anti-slavery project, football united refugee program and a Sudanese leadership training program.
The Mary MacKillop International Mission reaches into Peru and East Timor Ethica Accessories gives poor women in Peru the opportunity to earn an income by providing the resources to make products for sale in Australia and paying a fair wage for those products. The Mary MacKillop East Timor Mission fosters a range of opportunities for the advancement of the people of Timor-Leste, especially through literacy education in the Tetum language and through health and music education, advocacy, compassionate care and other educational and cultural activities.
"To Australians filled with the desire for a fair go for all, Mary inspires through her life of ensuring a fair go for all and erring always on the side of favouring the least, the most vulnerable, the poorest," Sr Anne said.
In a life of suffering even her new way of religious life and her placed within the congregation were painful.
"Her relationship with Fr Julian Tenison Woods her friend, her mentor, Father Director of this new congregation, broke down through misunderstandings and through the pressure placed on them and the congregation from outside forces," Sr Anne said. And their framework for governing the new congregation was certainly a source of suffering for Mary.
"Her legitimate authority as leader of the congregation was constantly questioned, denied and in fact overridden by some bishops. Her 'punishment' from those who judged her wrongly led her to excommunication, banishment from Adelaide and Brisbane, and the humiliation of an unauthorized and public inquiry into her conduct… How fitting that Mary took the title 'of the Cross' in her religious name ...
The basis of Mary's approach to suffering was the firm belief that God's love would never let anything happen that would not be for the ultimate good of herself and others ...
To people who suffer, she inspires as one who knew sorrow in her family life, in the family of her religious community and within the church she loved.
Mary's faith was in a provident and compassionate God.
Mary's faith was faith in action. She proclaimed God in deed as well as in word. From her faith in action we can draw inspiration today.
Such a theology of witness the Jesuit Jon Sobrino says ' enriches and deepens theology of texts.'
To people of faith, Mary inspires as one whose focus never wavered from God and one who lived her faith by the very actions of her life.
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