Mary Mackillop

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Mary MacKillop A spiritual model for all

by E.J. Cuskelly, MSC

All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society

CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE

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Contents A brief biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 A spiritual model for all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 She lived in God’s presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 She brought the Good News to the poor . . . . . . . . . . . .8 She walked the way of God’s will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 She went the way of the cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 She walked the way of love and forgiveness . . . . . . . .13 She loved her enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Acknowledgements This work was originally published in Walking the Way of Jesus: An Essay in Christian Spirituality by E J Cuskelly (St Pauls Publications, 1999) under the title of Mary MacKillop A Spiritual Model for Australasia. It is reproduced here with permission of the Archdiocese of Brisbane and the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Excerpts from the Letterbook and the Positio Super Causae Introductione of Mary MacKillop are used with the permission of the Trustees of the Sisters of St Joseph.

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A brief biography Mary MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in Fitzroy, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Her parents, Alexander MacKillop and Flora McDonald, had emigrated from Scotland and had met, and married, in Australia. At this time Melbourne was in its infancy.

Many of its streets, which today are major thoroughfares, were little more than tracks.

Mary, the eldest of eight children, was well educated by her father who spent some years studying for the priesthood in Rome but was not able to continue due to ill health. In 1835 he emigrated from Scotland to Australia with his parents. Unfortunately, he lacked financial awareness, so his wife and children were 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 helped to support her family, as a governess, as a clerk for Sands and Kenny (printers and stationers), and as a teacher at the Portland school in what is now western Victoria.

While acting as a governess to her uncle’s children at Penola, nearby in South Australia, Mary met Father Julian Tenison Woods who, with a parish of 22,000 square miles (56,000 square kilometres), needed help in the religious

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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 of the Sacred Heart was begun. In 1867, Mary was asked by Bishop Sheil to come to Adelaide to start a school. From there, the Sisters spread in groups to small outback settlements and large cities around Australia and New Zealand.

Mary and the early Sisters, together with other religious orders and lay teachers of the time, had a profound influence on the forming of Catholic education that has had, and continues to have, a great formative role in the development of Australian society. Mary also opened orphanages and houses to care for the homeless and destitute, both young and old; she opened 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. For a brief period she was under an edict of excommunication for refusing to accept changes to the Sisters’ rule which, she believed, were contrary to its spirit. In the most difficult of times she consistently refused to attack those who wrongly accused her and

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undermined her work, but continued in the way she believed God was calling her and was always ready to forgive those who wronged her.

Mary suffered poor health during much of her life. She died on 8 August 1909, in the convent in Mount Street, North Sydney, where her tomb is now enshrined. Since then the congregation has grown, mainly in Australia and New Zealand but also scattered singly or in small groups around the world in Brazil, Peru, East Timor, Ireland, Scotland and in refugee camps in Uganda and Thailand.

The ‘Brown Joeys’ may be seen in big city schools, on dusty bush tracks, in modern hospitals, in caravans, working with the ‘little ones’ of God – the homeless, the new migrants, indigenous people, the lonely and the unwanted, in direct care and in advocacy, in standing with and in speaking with. In their endeavours to reverence the human dignity of others and to change unjust structures, the Sisters and the many others who share Mary MacKillop’s spirit continue the work which she began.

This remarkable yet ordinary 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.

She was beatified in Sydney, Australia, by Pope John Paul II in 1995, and canonised a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on 17 October 2010.

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A spiritual model for all There are some actions which should be seen as rich in symbolism. For the people of Brisbane, Australia, one such action is the renovation of the old St Stephen’s Cathedral and its consecration as a shrine of St Mary MacKillop. The symbolism is twofold.

Firstly, the old cathedral was the heart of the spiritual life of the Brisbane Church, and its restoration and reopening in February 1999 is a symbol of a renewal of the spiritual life which should flourish in the Archdiocese.

Secondly, its dedication as a shrine of St Mary MacKillop is the expression of a hope that, in her life and example, all of us will find inspiration to live as true disciples of Jesus, walking his way, telling his truth, living his life.

Mary MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 January 1995. The beatification was a declaration that she was a woman who had walked the way of Jesus, told his truth and lived his life. The Pope also declared that she was a model for the rest of us who live in these lands.

Her spirituality should serve as inspiration to us. In describing her vision and response, the Pope said (in words similar to ones we have already used):