cor PERTH, WA: February 16, 1995
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r WA fits that image
LESSED Mary of the Cross would have loved B Western Australia, Josephite congregational leaderSr Mary Cresp told last Sunday's cathedral congregation. Although Mother Mary MacKillop only briefly stopped over in WA en route to Europe, she would have loved what WA portrays of the Australian national image, said Sister Mary who leads the 1300 Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart across Australia and New Zealand. The Australian image is one of solitude, dry distant deserts, and long distances, Sister Mary said. Western Australia symbolises that image. Mother Mary's sisters worked far and wide and Mother Mary herself was the Church for the people in the isolated areas. She brought the Church wherever she went. Mother Mary MacKillop went to the margins of society and brought hope. That is the challenge for us and tghe Church today. Sister Mary Cresp said. Mother Mary had allowed the power of Christ in her to act. For her it was God who is the foundation of our community and of our unuion with one another.
Sister Mary Cresp after she had spoken in St Mary's Cathedral.
Perth's time to make prayerful song and dance about Blessed Mary of the Cross On the other hand she was a very char- own had been so favoured by the Holy 1.ESSED Mary of the Cross now had We receive her into opur midst because B to be owned as one of us and as a saint she showed us how to live as Christ did acteristic Australian, a woman of action, Father's presence. for all Australians, Archbishop Hickey said and to love people as God calls us to love not called away from the world but to last Sunday. The Mass to honour Blessed Mary was a West Australian tribute to her but it was a national event also with the presence of Cardinal Clancy of Sydney, Archbishop Hickey said. Last Sunday's ceremony included a rereading of the decree of beatification used by Pope John Paul in Sydney last month and also a blessing of a portrait of Blessed Mary that will hang in St Mary's Cathedral near her loved St Joseph.
them," the archbishop said. The occasion was a great testimony to the Sisters' mission to preach the gospel to the poor. The Sisters in their work have covered the whole of the state in its remotest parts and are still there today, he continued. Blessed Mary is an Australian saint because she is like so many Australians today. In her Scottish ancestry she is typical of ordinary Australians who have ancestry from other countries.
immerse herself in the world to invite the world around her to follow Christ. She had a practical spirituality, the archbishop said. Whatever people may think of the Church, this woman is one of our own who practised virtue of an heroic kind. The beatification of Blessed Mary had had an impact on the visit of Pope John Paul, the archbishop noted, and nearly all comment had been favourable and every Australian was proud that one of their
With present day thinking paying attention to sacred sites, the archbishop noted, the beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop had given Australia some new sacred sites. The places where she had live, worked, journeyed and where she died were now becoming places of pilgrimage. Many people today are feeling the need for spirituality in their lives and many will be drawn by the spirit of Blessed mary of the Cross and will give thanks to God.
Sights, sounds
OVE was in the air as the beatification of Blessed L Mary of the Cross gave Perth some music sounds and sights to be long remembered.
.0( A At St Mary's Cathedral last Sunday, local Josephite leader Sr Maria Casey gives the sign of peace to the Premier Richard Court. Between them is Archbishop Peter Carnley and (right) Fr Boutros lssa of the Cypriot Orthodox Church.
In St Mary's Cathedral on Sunday morning, worshippers wheeled as Scottish pipes skirled ahead of the book of the gospels being carried by a Sister of St Joseph. Ears pricked up to the tune "Ho ro my nut brown maiden", the very deliberate personal choice of military piper Terry Jones of Greenwood made just after he had been invited to take part in the ceremony. It was the first tune he had ever learned on the pipes and when he saw a portrait of Mother Mary in her brown habit, he knew this was the piece he had to play. On Sunday evening over 10,000 people heard different sort of tribute to Blessed Mary from hundreds of Catholic schoolchildren in a Power of Love concert. A warm up session included music from some 150 musicians from the Corpus Christi and Mazenod concert bands and the Trinity pipes. Nearly 150 other children then presented a 90 minute accompaniment to the drama narrative of Mother Mary's life, items being from schools on pages 14 and 15, from Sacred Heart Sorrento and MacKillop school Ballajura. The idea had been hatched in October, briefly outlined before the December breakup and put together in two week since school had recommenced. "It was possible because of the highly professional skills the schools have developed in the Performing Arts Festival," said Mrs Roberta Chapman, chairperson of the festival committe and who stage managed Sunday night's concert with a team of 20. • See pages 6,7, 14 and 15.