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A Brief journey into the Lifeof St Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Auckland Principals’ Conference 2013
held at Mary MacKillop Place Sydney.
Presenters: Christina Neunzerling rsj Katrina Brill rsj
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart
Joseph the carpenter/workerSrs of St Joseph of of Le Puy,
France
St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart
Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald were married on 14 July 1840 in the original St Francis Church in Melbourne.
The celebrant was Fr Geoghegan later the second bishop of Adelaide.
Family Influences: Flora MacDonald
• arrived in Melbourne on 17th April 1840 with her brother Donald and their mother.
• after 2 months quarantine at Port Ormond they were given lodgings by Alexander MacKillop in Brunswick.
• on their release in mid June, Alexander took the three McDonalds to Brunswick where he was living.
Family Influences
1842 –January 15th
Mary Helen (Ellen) was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne,
the eldest child of eight children ofFlora (MacDonald) and Alexander MacKillop.
{Margaret, John, Alexander (died in childhood) Lexie, Annie, Donald and Peter}
Family: Alexander MacKillop
Both parents were from Lochaber Scotland. (Immigrants)
Alexander was an ex-seminarian who studied in Rome
He was a registered teacher
Proficient in five languages
He arrived in Sydney in 1838 aged 26yrs. He then travelled to Melbourne.
Family Influences: Alexander MacKillop
“ From him I learnt so much of the teachings of our faith “ Mary MacKillop
Family InfluencesHer father influenced her with his
a sense of justice.
Sought learning like her father
Family Influences
Mary writes:
God gave me good Catholic parents, a mother that in patience, resignation and
suffering seemed to me, and to many more, a second Monica.
[Letter to Monsignor Kirby, 1873]
“My dear Mama ,
I owe so much to you
To your love and your care. I know how fondly you love us all, and how gladly you suffered for us.”Dec 21 1868
Family Influences• Mary describes her childhood My life as a child was one of sorrows, my home when I had it, a most unhappy one.
[Letter Monsignor Kirby 1873]
• The family was at times destitute as unfortunately, Alexander lacked financial awareness and would take risks without any sense of responsibility.
• The family went bankrupt and had to depend for some time on extended family.
Family InfluencesMary was required to gain work to help support the
family. …When I was little more than 16 years of age, the
principle care of a very large family fell upon me, and from that until I was 25 I felt its burden yearly more and more. All this time too, I desired to be a Religious Sister but was frequently in my impatience and pride in great danger of losing my holy vocation.
[Mary to Mons Kirby 1873]
Mary MacKillop
New Horizons
• In 1858 Mary -shop assistant for “Kenny and Sands” in Collins St, Melbourne
• 1860-1861 –Governess to cousins, the Camerons at “Penola Station” where Mary first met Fr Julian Woods.
New Horizons
In October 1863 Mary takes a position as salaried teacher in the Catholic
denominational school, Portland.
1864 – Mary opens Bay View House School for Young ladies at Portland. Her mother and her sisters Annie & Maggie were to assist in this venture
New Horizons
1862 – Mary became governess to Mrs Duncan Cameron’s two teenage girls at Portland -Victoria
•She maintained contact with Fr Woods.
•Alexander’s instability of character is instanced several times in the family story and continued to be of concern to Mary. She had obviously confided this to Julian ..as noted in his reply letter in 1865…..[slides 16-18]
Fr. Julian Tennyson Wood’s Letter to Mary MacKillop:Now as to your Papa. Poor man, you must pray for him, and I think you had better not have said anything. I don’t blame you, however, but I am thinking of what is best. Whatever may be the result of your efforts on his behalf, I do really think that he should be left to himself, even if the family be broken up. That should be the course I think, if you do not succeed in getting the 4th boarder and if your efforts to keep things safe are not successful.
Genesis of an Order?1857Julian is appointed to the parish of
Penola in south-eastern South Australia and western Victoria– 56,000 square kilometres– travels around on horseback– becomes aware of the plight of the poor
children– longs for them to be able to learn about their
faith and to read and write – dreams of a group of women to meet this
need
What in Julian’s early life inspired such awareness and desire that led to the
Genesis of an Order1865Fr Woods asks Mary MacKillop to send Annie to take
charge of the Catholic School in Penola
1866 January Mary & Lexie go to join Annie in Penola School in South Australia not far from the Victorian border.
JOHN MACKILLOP
• Came to NZ with his father Alexander in search of gold.
• Went on to Christchurch and became a carpenter apprentice.
• Returned to Penola and renovated the barn for the first Josephite school.
• Back to Christchurch. Died from a horse accident. A girlfriend had followed him to Christchurch and put up a headstone for him.
• Josephites found the tombstone in recent years.
Books
Six Little Stories about Mary MacKillop
The Black Dress – Mary MacKillop’s Early years
Flora MacKillop: A Truly Blessed Mother
Family Influences
What stayed with you?
What from Mary’s early family life could be shared with staff or parents or children?
HER SPIRIT AND CHARISM
The Dynamic of Loving
To Be
To be with
To do
Funeral
Sydney 2008 WYD
“Mary MacKillop’s perseverance in the face of adversity, her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated and her practical example of holiness have become a source of inspiration.”Pope Benedict
DOING
MOTTO: “Do all the good you can and never see a need/evil without trying to do something about it?”
“Use all the resources you have and leave the rest to God”
Am I doing my bit?
Her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated
In seven years(1866-1873) there were over 120 Josephite Srs
working in44 elementary schools and 4 charitable institutions.
Her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated
BEGINNINGS: Tuberlant• Expansion …. Growth in SA and Queensland• Debt … pressure• Young, enthusiastic and sometimes uneducated• Distance …• Pressure from some Priests• Pressure on Relationship between Julian and Mary• Trip to Rome for Rule approval
•
Her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated
“Seek first the poor and most neglected
in God’s vineyard” Preparing for Chapter in 1900
“Her Practical example of holiness”
• Holiness is about the dynamic of loving.
• “Do all the good you can and never see an evil
without trying to remedy it”
Her Practical example of Holiness
• Developed a personal empathy with people.• Resourceful and practical• Gave both a ‘handout and a
hand-up’.• Was a ‘large-hearted woman’.
She entered into the lives of others and brought hope and belief in another chance.
Her Practical example of Holiness
• Holiness is about the dynamic of loving.
• Mary MacKillop inevitably inspires us to have faith in ourselves and in a ‘good God’ that sees our faults, failures and weaknesses as opportunities to grow.
• She would see an “evil” and find the resources within her to do something about it.
In for the long road.
PERSEVERANCE
“Perseverance in the face of adversity”
• Perseverence is settling in for the long road. It takes as long as it takes.
• Perseverance is learning how to cope with frustration. Coping sometimes requires strong beliefs in a vision supported by patience and ‘stickability’.
• MMK strove to keep her dignity and faith in herself.
Perseverence in adversity
Mary MacKillop had some very public experiences of humiliation where her reputation was damaged
or her legitimate position of
authority was over-ruled.
Perseverence in adversity
Pioneering situations, growing urbanisation, diocesan debts, lack of personnel.
New Order- prepared to take anyone and prepared to ‘rough’ it.
Rapid growth; extraordinary feats; courageous women;Some too young; some untrained; some mentally vulnerable.
By 1880 debt of 10,000 pounds.
Perseverence in adversity
Excommunication: Bishop Sheil 1871
Separation: Bishop Mathew Quinn-Bathurst Dismissed: Bishop James Quinn Queensland.
Public Enquiry: Bishop Reynolds 1883
Appointment of MG: Cardinal Moran 1885-1898
Crosses/Uncertainties
Think of uncertainties, worries, anxieties, depression, health issues, hurts, broken relationships, challenges that are in your life or appearing in your life.What keeps you going? From where do you get your strength to carry on?
What sustained Mary MacKillop?
What was her inner force?
Seemed led by some consuming love that was ever present to her, that drove her that sustained her, that grieved her when absent.
What was her inner force? What sustained her?
This strong belief in the love of a Good God for her and all peoples, especially the vulnerable,led her, the Commission believe, to become a woman of heroic virtue.
A woman of heroic virtue
Faith is only a virtue when you keep faith in unbelievable circumstances. She kept faith.
Hope is only a virtue when you hold onto hope in the darkest, depressing and hopeless of situations. She hung onto hope over and over again.
Charity is only a virtue of charity when one is able to come to a point when ‘the unpardonable is pardoned’. She pardoned them all.
“See the hand of God in all that happens not the caprice of others.”
“Listen to the whisperings of God in your heart”
AWARENESS
“I have such a presence of God. I may say that it rarely leaves me, it makes everything hard, easy. I just get a taste of bitterness in some things and then something calm raises my mind above it all”
Mary MacKillop inspires us.
“God is love and those who
live in love live in God
and God lives in them”Jn.
Let us find within ourselves some of that love, that resilience, that practicality that humility strengthened by a deep inner trust in a ‘Good God’
Mary MacKillop inspires us.
St. Mary MacKillop pray for us
Her plea for justice on behalf of those unfairly treated
