Sydney Archdiocese REPORT-
4 Aug 2011
Millions Worldwide Celebrated
the Canonisation of St Mary of the Cross
Hundreds of thousands worldwide will celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop on Monday, 8 August.
Not only will schools, parishes and churches across Australia mark the Feast Day of Australia's first Saint, which was officially declared a Solemnity by the Vatican at the request of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in April this year, but the inspiration of Mary MacKillop and the life she led will be celebrated by communities and individuals in Peru, India, Kenya, the US, Scotland, Ireland, Malaysia and Europe.
"Certainly our Josephite communities in New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and Peru will be celebrating. But so too will thousands of others including people from many different denominations and different faiths," says Sister Maria Casey RSJ.
A Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the congregation founded by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop with Father Julian Tenison Woods, Sr Maria says that 102 years after her death, Mary MacKillop continues to touch people from all walks of life as an example of strength, compassion, kindness and belief that all people, regardless of income, race, religion, gender, were deserving of our respect.
Sr Maria Casey kneels before the Holy Father
at the Canonisation Mass in Rome
"During her lifetime she had friends who were Jewish, friends from Presbyterian and other Protestant denominations. She never discriminated and believed in the dignity and worth of every human being," says Sr Maria who sums up the life of Australia's first saint, as "a truly good Holy human being."
But even Sr Maria, who was Postulator for Cause of Blessed Mary MacKillop, taking over from Father Paul Gardiner SJ in 2008 after he resigned due to ill health after more than 25 years as Postulator, admits she is amazed and thrilled at how Catholics and non Catholics have responded to St Mary of the Cross since the Canonisation by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on 17 October last year.
"We receive countless letters and emails about how she has touched people's lives," Sr Maria says and recounts how a Texan father in Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008, learned about Mary MacKillop during his stay and her work as an educator, as champion of immigrants and refugees as well as the poor, oppressed and destitute.
Fr Paul Gardiner
"He came to Australia for World Youth Day with his daughter. He suffered from Parkinson's Disease. He prayed at Mary MacKillop's tomb for her intercession and claims that his prayers had been answered and that the symptoms had been relieved. For the first time in years he could hold a pen to write. After his return to the US he wrote sometime later to say that he was spreading the good news of Mary MacKillop in his native Texas," she says.
There are also stories that have come from East Timor. In one a young teacher and her young students were in an extremely dangerous situation during the bloody battles following the nation's independence. With great courage and risk to her life, the teacher gathered up her students and managed to get them to safety. Later when asked if she was afraid, she said "no, because I walked with Mary MacKillop. She was with me and kept us from harm."
Similar tales are repeated again and again, even from such far off places as Kenya, a Hindu community in India where the people first heard about Mary MacKillop from a visiting Australian cricket team, and Kuala Lumpur where the televised canonisation of Mary MacKillop was played and replayed.
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop
Since Mary MacKillop was canonised on 17 October last year, Sr Maria says people from across the world email or write to share their love of Australia's first saint.
"The other day I asked some of our older Sisters what the Feast Day will mean to them, and they said what impressed them most was her inspiration to young and old, Catholic and non Catholic, and the significant number of Muslim people who have a great respect and love for her," says Sr Maria, adding that each year an Islamic primary school in Sydney brings its young students to Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney to visit the tomb of St Mary of the Cross. "They appreciate her values and the fact she is such a strong role model for women as well as for those who are down and out and need help."
St Mary of the Cross's legacy also continues through her various teachings.
Last year at a Mass for Education at the Cathedral a child was asked what Mary MacKillop meant to her and she repeated Mary's words: 'Never see a need without doing something about it." She then eloquently told everyone present that if we followed this advice and everyone did "something kind and good each day," that we could change the world.
Appropriately, Sr Maria who was Postulator for the Cause of Blessed Mary MacKillop will join her friend and fellow Postulator for the Cause, Fr Paul Gardiner and will be in Penola, SA with him on the first Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross.
The historic schoolhouse in Penola SA
Author of An Extraordinary Australian: Mary MacKillop, regarded by scholars as the definitive biography of her life, beliefs, faith and holiness, Fr Paul is now 88. Officially retired and a beloved figure in the town, he continues to study, read classical Latin and Greek and to celebrate Mass when needed at nearby St Joseph's Church.
For both Sr Maria and Fr Paul the canonisation was the culmination of many many years of work by many many people who first began collecting records and important papers relating to her faith, love of God and her life of holiness for her canonisation back in 1920s.
But it was Cardinal Patrick Moran, the then Archbishop of Sydney who recognised the holiness of Mary MacKillop even earlier and after attending her prior to her death on 8 August 1909, he announced had that he had "just left the bedside of a saint."
In Sydney the first Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop will be celebrated at Mary MacKillop Place, Mount Street North Sydney with Masses at 8 am, 10 am and 1 pm which will be held on Glenroy Green, the square in front of the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel.
The Chapel itself will be open for private prayer and visits to the tomb of Australia's first saint from 8.30 am until 4 pm on Monday, 8 August.
Read Feast Days of "Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop - 8 August"
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/news/latest_news/2011/201184_413.shtml
Comments