Australia has changed considerably in sixteen years since the canonisation of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop on 17 October 2010. We face rapidly changing issues of power and control in our world and we look to St Mary’s example with confidence in these times.
Below are four values of Mary MacKillop that highlight aspects of her life and contributed to the cause for her canonisation.
Listen for God’s Call
Only what you will my God.
Mary listened with her heart and mind to what God was saying to her through her family experience and others’ needs. An explicit call was given her through Father Julian Tenison Woods who witnessed firsthand the needs of his parishioners in rural South Australia. Mary took up the challenge. Through prayer, she opened explicitly to God’s call to work in the world and Church as a Sister of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Through her example we too, can open our hearts to hear God’s call in the circumstances of our lives.
Make Room in Your Hearts for All
Help one another and bear with one another as God does with each of us.
Love was Mary’s mode of life. She made room for children who needed education, adults who were needy and orphans who were homeless. Mary herself was the eldest child of immigrants. Born in Australia she understood what Australians needed. Through her example, we are encouraged to open our hearts to welcome and accept others, especially those different from ourselves.
Try always to be generous with God.
Mary’s approach to life was a ‘roll up your sleeves’ approach. By her example, she encourages us to have a compassionate, practical response to the needs that we may encounter. On one occasion, she responded to an orphan boy’s bedside request as he lay dying at Kincumber. Mary stopped all that she was doing to make her way through a driving storm to the boy’s bedside. He said, “I knew you would come”. What confidence he had in this generous hearted woman whom he knew would respond to his deepest need. We too can have confidence in her support as we face our own needs.
Attitude of Gratitude
I cannot feel sufficiently grateful to our good God.
World events could break our hearts or leave us feeling anxious and afraid. Mary’s response to the events that could have broken her spirit was to find something good for which to thank God. Patterns of gratitude for the smallest things will strengthen us from fear. A life pattern of gratefulness enhances our minds and hearts and strengthens us in times of helplessness as we encounter obstacles in life. This way peace grows in happy, grateful hearts.
Mary’s deep faith and love for her God, and the values she held, helped her to live an extraordinary life in the face of great obstacles. We are beneficiaries of her loving service to God and to God’s people in her lifetime. We praise and thank our good God for our Australian saint.
Diane Phillips rsj