St Mary Of The Cross MacKillop

C-2 (August 8 in Australia)

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Mt 25:34, 36, 40 Come, you blessed of my Father, says the Lord: I was sick, and you visited me. Amen, I say to you: whatever you did for one of the least of my brethren, you did it for me.

Collect O God, source of all goodness, who have shown us in Saint Mary a woman of faith living by the power of the Cross, teach us, we pray, by her example to live the gospel in changing times and to respect and defend the human dignity of all in our land. Through our Lord.

St Mary MacKillop (1842 - 1909) (Australia)

On January 15, 1842 Mary MacKillop was born of Scottish parents, Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald in Fitzroy, Victoria. This was less than seven years after Faulkner sailed up the Yarra, when Elizabeth Street was a deep gully and Lonsdale Street was still virgin bush. A plaque in the footpath now marks the place of her birth in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Mary, the eldest of eight children, was well educated by her father who spent some years studying for the priesthood in Rome but through ill health had returned to his native Scotland until 1835 when he migrated to Australia with his parents. Unfortunately, he lacked financial awareness, so the family was often without a home of their own, depending on friends and relatives and frequently separated from one another. From the age of sixteen, Mary earned her living and greatly supported her family, as a governess, as a clerk for Sands and Kenny (now Sands and MacDougall), and as a teacher at the Portland school. While acting as a governess to her uncle's children at Penola, Mary met Father Julian Tenison Woods who, with a parish of 22,000 square miles/56,000 square kilometres, needed help in the religious education of children in the outback. At the time Mary's family depended on her income so she was not free to follow her dream. However, in 1866, greatly inspired and encouraged by Father Woods, Mary opened the first Saint Joseph's School in a disused stable in Penola. Young women came to join Mary, and so the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph was begun. In 1867, Mary was asked by Bishop Shiel to come to Adelaide to start a school. From there, the Sisters spread, in groups to small outback settlements and large cities around Australia, New Zealand, and now in Peru, Brazil and refugee camps of Uganda and Thailand. Mary and these early Sisters, together with other Religious Orders and Lay Teachers of the time, had a profound influence on the forming of Catholic Education as we have come to know and experience it today. She also opened Orphanages, Providences to care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life. Throughout her life, Mary met with opposition from people outside the Church and even from some of those within it. In the most difficult of times she consistently refused to attack those who wrongly accused her and undermined her work, but continued in the way she believed God was calling her and was always ready to forgive those who wronged her. Throughout her life Mary suffered ill health. She died on August 8, 1909 in the convent in Mount Street, North Sydney where her tomb is now enshrined. This great Australian woman inspired great dedication to God's work in the then new colonies. In today's world, she stands as an example of great courage and trust in her living out of God's loving and compassionate care of those in need.

Scripture today: Judith 8:11-17,28-31; Colossians 3:12-17; Matthew 6:25-34

Jesus said, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)

MacKillop The study of history is a source of unending fascination. Some have seen history as primarily the working out of laws - the laws of history. Hegel and Marx understood history in terms of the law of struggle and they thought they had identified a pattern in this struggle. Others see history as primarily driven by individuals. What individuals choose to do is the determining factor in history. Of course, there are a multitude of factors that shape the course of mankind, and there is surely no doubt that individuals, considered in the mass and considered in terms of the leaders of the mass, are of decisive importance. What would have happened about the spread of Greek civilization were it not for Alexander? At the same time, there is a mighty factor transcending this world which is fundamental to its course. I refer to divine Providence, the action in history of God the Creator and Redeemer. The Sacred Scriptures teach and illustrate that amid the rise and fall of the fortunes and course of the world, God is attaining his end. At the beginning, man fell and was estranged from his Creator. At the end, through the work of Christ, God will be all in all. God is almighty and his might shows itself in his mercy. Now, a signal display of the might of God in history is the story of sanctity - the lives of the saints. The greatest Saint of all is Jesus Christ, of course, and he - oh wonder! - was and is God made man. He is the face of God, and in him we see that God is holy, mighty, compassionate, merciful. But there have been numerous saints since him, all lovers of Jesus Christ. The might of God is shown in the sanctity of these numerous individuals. Their sanctity is the work of his grace, with which they have fully co-operated. An example is afforded us in the life of Mary MacKillop, early Australian. Born in Melbourne a mere seven years after its founding by settlers from Van Dieman’s Land, Mary MacKillop was a child of five when the settlement was declared a city by Queen Victoria. Her family was pious and good, and God chose her to be the special work of his grace.

The child was privileged, it seems, to have been visited by the Virgin Mary and assured that she had been marked from the beginning as her child (Gardiner, 29-30). There is no need to trace the course of her life, for it is well known. But one event may be considered, the terrible mistake of her excommunication by the bishop of Adelaide. Dr Sheil, in mitre and cape, said he had to take this step because of Mary’s disobedience and rebellion. He himself was acting in total disregard for the requirements of canon law. No proofs were cited. One of the sisters in the chapel broke down, distraught. Later, Bishop Goold commented from Melbourne, “Poor Dr Sheil, he must labour under mental disease.” But what is remarkable, and what shows the power of grace in forging sanctity, was Mary’s response. Mary’s account of the experience is as follows: “I seemed not to realize the presence of the Bishop and priests; I know I did not see them; but I felt, oh, such a love for their office, a love, a sort of reverence for the very sentence which I then knew was being in full force passed upon me. I do not know how to describe the feeling, but I was intensely happy and felt nearer to God than I ever felt before. The sensation of the calm beautiful presence of God I shall never forget” (Gardiner, 105). The striking thing about this event was the composure, peace of soul and happiness in God which Mary MacKillop experienced and displayed throughout. It was one of numerous instances of the power of divine grace at work in her soul. Her life was marked by the Cross - her name in religion was Mary of the Cross. The Cross was her means of fruitfulness and in carrying the Cross she attained joy in this life, and eternal happiness in the next. The power of God was at work in her life because she embraced the Cross for love of Jesus Christ, the Cross that is inherent in doing the divine will. When we think of a saint such as Mary MacKillop, we ought think in the first instance of the power of God attaining its end, which is the sanctification of man. This is the will of God, your sanctification, St Paul writes. God’s mighty power in history is shown especially in the life of the saint.

What to do, then? Firstly, we must have a great desire for personal sanctity, which is to say, for union with God in Jesus Christ. We must want to live and die in Jesus. We must want to follow him closely, for love of him. For love of him, we must want to imitate him in the deepest recesses of our heart and soul. This cannot be done without the active and constant aid of divine grace. It is God’s work, and our role is to co-operate generously every day. Let us ask St Mary MacKillop to intercede for us before the throne of God, that we, each of us, will co-operate generously with the powerful and beautiful plan of God in our regard, to ensure that his will in us is done.

(E.J.Tyler)

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