Fanning the Flame of Hope
August 9, 2025
As part of the Jubilee year celebrations for 2025, in which Mary MacKillop Place also celebrates 30 years since its opening, members of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Mary MacKillop Place and the broader community came together on the evening of Thursday 24 July, to celebrate the opening of a new exhibition at Mary MacKillop Place Museum.
Titled Fanning the Flame of Hope, the exhibition invites each of us to reflect on what it means to carry hope forward in our world today. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable life of Saint Mary MacKillop, the exhibition weaves together the historical and spiritual into a compelling and immersive experience. It is also a joyous journey back in time which revisits some of the milestones, memories and moments which have shaped the story of Mary MacKillop Place over the last three decades.
Mary MacKillop: Role Model and Inspiration to the Josephite Companions
August 8, 2025
The liturgical feast of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, on Friday 8 August, confirms and proclaims worldwide that Mary MacKillop enjoys eternal peace, ‘nestled in the very heart’ of the God whom she loved and served so faithfully throughout her earthly life.
We can confidently pray for guidance through her intercession for our needs, both individually and collectively. This is something that the Sisters of Saint Joseph and those who seek to embrace the charism of Mary MacKillop in their daily lives, have always believed, well before her official canonisation.
Celebrating Mary MacKillop’s Charism in the Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools
The charism of Saint Mary MacKillop continues to shape and inspire Catholic education across the Diocese of Toowoomba, particularly in its remote and rural schools. The Toowoomba Diocese is 487,000 m2 in size, covering the Darling Downs and South West region of Queensland from just east of the Great Dividing Range to the South Australia border.
Mary MacKillop’s connection to the Mary MacKillop Spirituality Ministry
As an organisation that carries Mary MacKillop’s name in our title, we take very seriously the need to be faithful to her life and vision. Mary MacKillop was a woman of deep prayerfulness and trust in God. Mary’s exhortation to her Sisters to “do all the good that they could with the means at their disposal and then to leave the rest calmly to God” (1888), is a quote that has been mentioned a number of times in our staff meetings and gatherings.
St Mary MacKillop: Reading the Signs of Her Times
A frequently quoted and a compelling invitation from the Vatican II Council is to “read the signs of the times”. For the many Catholics who heard or read this in 1965, it had an edge of newness about what it meant to be a follower of Christ, as it called for a more creative and relevant way of being in mission. However, as we explore our Catholic Tradition, we find that many of the great men and women of faith who have gone before us, were experts in reading the “signs of the times”.
Saint Mary MacKillop was one such person who did this with clarity and conviction. The fledgling colony of Australia into which Mary was born in 1842 was expanding. Education systems were beginning to take root. However, access to these schools varied, and was largely dependent on one’s social class and economic resources.
Saint Mary MacKillop Feast Day 2025
August 7, 2025Be Calm and Full of Hope
As we mark the Jubilee year and celebrate the feast of Saint Mary MacKillop, we are invited to reflect on her enduring message: “Be calm and full of hope.” In a world yearning for peace, Mary’s life calls us to be Pilgrims of Hope, walking with faith and nurturing seeds of hope.
Mary MacKillop Feast Day Celebrations 2025
July 22, 2025
Mary MacKillop Place, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and Mary MacKillop Today extend a warm invitation to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop on Friday, 8 August 2025.
We look forward to welcoming everyone, including our pilgrims and supporters, to Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney.
Peter – The Youngest MacKillop
July 21, 2025
Peter MacKillop.
Born at Merri Creek, Victoria in 1857, the eighth and youngest of the MacKillop children was baptised Peter in his parish church of St Paul’s Coburg. His sister Lexie lived at home, while his oldest sibling Mary was establishing her new Congregation. Peter was loved by all his siblings.
Father Julian Tenison Woods arranged for Peter to be educated at the Jesuit College at Sevenhill in South Australia, supported by Fr Reynolds. He spent breaks with the MacLean family or the Kilsbys on the Murray. Peter, humorous and literate, hated his school life and wrote to Mary telling her so, saying he wanted to go to work. Peter wrote he suffered from fits – we would say epilepsy.