Image credit: Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart https://www.sosj.org.au/
Today the Australian Church celebrates the feast of our own St Mary MacKillop.
She was born in Melbourne from a Scottish background.
Mary was a governess in Penola in South Australia. Fr Tenison-Woods and Mary started a free Catholic school in the town.
This was the beginning of numerous schools that were started by the Sisters of St Joseph which she founded with the support of Fr Tenison.
Mary inspires many young women to leave everything and commit themselves to lead simple lives and the Catholic education of children especially for those who found it hard to access this type of education.
The Bishop at the time was wrongly advised and excommunicated her. This was an error of judgment by the Bishop.
Even though she revived a miscarriage of justice Mary would not let anyone speak ill of the Bishop.
She had lots of other sufferings including some at the hands of some of her own Sisters.
None the less she remained faithful to her commitment.
One of her sayings was ‘see a need, do something about it!’
She certainly did!
As we prepare for the plenary council, we are reminded to see the needs of our times for our Church and to also do something about it.
Mary’s faithfulness calls us to keep listening to God‘s call and to also help renewing our commitment to be available for service of God and God’s people.
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