Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop – An Australian Brings Us Hope

Today, 8 August, we celebrate the Feast Day of St Mary MacKillop. All students across the college reflect on the amazing contributions she has made to the lives of so many Australians.

Mary of the Cross MacKillop is our first Australian saint. She knew how to trust that God would provide in the face of financial insecurity and rapid change.  When she met with opposition, even from within the Church she loved, she relied ever more on God’s providence! She knew that God’s love and care could triumph over human politics and power.

Mary was born in Melbourne in 1842.  She died in Sydney on the 8th of August in 1909.  Mary took the religious name, Mary of the Cross.  Responding to the isolation of colonial families, she pioneered a new form of religious life to provide education for their children.  She and her Sisters shared the life of the poor and the itinerant, offering special care to destitute women and children especially in rural areas and outback Australia.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.                                                                                                            Matthew 6:25-29

 Holy God, source of all goodness, you inspired Mary MacKillop, an Australian woman of faith, to entrust her life and work to you. Teach us to embrace what she pioneered:  new ways of living the gospel that respect and defend the human dignity of all in our land. We pray in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Mrs Carey Twidale