austraLasia #2737
Australia rejoices: St Mary of the Cross
"The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire of reading it".
St Peter's Square: 17 October 2010 -- Australia now has every right to rejoice with the Universal Church as it welcomes the new name inscribed in the list of Saints, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. That took place after 10 am on Sunday morning 17 October in St Peter's Square in sunshine, no real rain threatening. Nothing was going to rain on her parade - not for her, not for the other five Saints proclaimed, hailing from Canada, Spain, Poland, Italy as well as Australia. At somewhere around 11.30 am Archbishop Amato sdb signaled the close to the canonisation part of the rite, requesting the Holy Father to issue the Apostolic Decree noting the completed rite of canonisation, to which Pope Benedict responded with a single word: 'Decernimus'. 'We so order it to be done'!
Mary was born in inner Melbourne, at Fitzroy, of Scottish born parents. In fact, there is a Scottish Salesian, Bro Donald McDonald (as there is also an Australian Salesian, Fr Alan McDonald) who dropped a line just yesterday to suggest that kilts might be all the go in St Peter's Square this weekend. Mary's grandparents were of the MacKillop and McDonald clans. Donald wasn't wrong; there was one kilted member of the family (not sure which clan though - too far away to catch the tartan signature) who accompanied Mary's relics to the altar. He managed to bring the one light moment to the entire ceremony with his ceremonial mace (the rest of us would call it a walking stick) when he decided one of the flower pots placed at the base of the stand was ill-arranged, so he used his stick to move them around!
No doubt the Holy Father had been previously well-advised not to even think of holding the canonisation towards the end of September, when Mary's home town Melbourne, but everywhere else she worked as well, would be focused on another stadium with similar capacity to St Peter's Square: the Australian Football League Grand Final! Collingwood and canonisation might not mix! Besides, the Holy Father was occupied elsewhere at that point. So October 17 was chosen and enabled an estimated 8,000 or more Australians to be present. But her feast day will be celebrated as has already been established since her Beatification, on 8 August each year.
For those who know little of this woman who has caught the imagination of Australians, believing or otherwise, Mary was born January 15 1842. They were tough times, and Mary had to find employment at an arly age to help the family and her seven siblings. She became a governess and teacher, moving to a small town in South Australia called Penola. It was a time when social services were non-existent, and the rural population severely disadvantaged, especially in terms of education and more so Catholic education, for children. Mary set about remedying that with the help of an insightful parish priest. Together they planned a Congregation of sisters who would work wherever there was a need but especially in rural areas. These Sisters are The Josephites, or more fully the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
The story is too long to tell it all here. There were very dark moments. The Bishop of Adelaide at one point excommunicated her! But she found great support, as did Don Bosco, from Pope Pius IX who set in motion the recognition that would eventually come for her Institute, in 1888. More trials - at one point she was deposed as Mother General, and fell out of favour with the very priest who had helped her found the Institute, but she accepted everything as God's will. "The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire of reading it".
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2010 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Australia rejoices: St Mary of the Cross
"The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire of reading it".
St Peter's Square: 17 October 2010 -- Australia now has every right to rejoice with the Universal Church as it welcomes the new name inscribed in the list of Saints, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. That took place after 10 am on Sunday morning 17 October in St Peter's Square in sunshine, no real rain threatening. Nothing was going to rain on her parade - not for her, not for the other five Saints proclaimed, hailing from Canada, Spain, Poland, Italy as well as Australia. At somewhere around 11.30 am Archbishop Amato sdb signaled the close to the canonisation part of the rite, requesting the Holy Father to issue the Apostolic Decree noting the completed rite of canonisation, to which Pope Benedict responded with a single word: 'Decernimus'. 'We so order it to be done'!
Mary was born in inner Melbourne, at Fitzroy, of Scottish born parents. In fact, there is a Scottish Salesian, Bro Donald McDonald (as there is also an Australian Salesian, Fr Alan McDonald) who dropped a line just yesterday to suggest that kilts might be all the go in St Peter's Square this weekend. Mary's grandparents were of the MacKillop and McDonald clans. Donald wasn't wrong; there was one kilted member of the family (not sure which clan though - too far away to catch the tartan signature) who accompanied Mary's relics to the altar. He managed to bring the one light moment to the entire ceremony with his ceremonial mace (the rest of us would call it a walking stick) when he decided one of the flower pots placed at the base of the stand was ill-arranged, so he used his stick to move them around!
No doubt the Holy Father had been previously well-advised not to even think of holding the canonisation towards the end of September, when Mary's home town Melbourne, but everywhere else she worked as well, would be focused on another stadium with similar capacity to St Peter's Square: the Australian Football League Grand Final! Collingwood and canonisation might not mix! Besides, the Holy Father was occupied elsewhere at that point. So October 17 was chosen and enabled an estimated 8,000 or more Australians to be present. But her feast day will be celebrated as has already been established since her Beatification, on 8 August each year.
For those who know little of this woman who has caught the imagination of Australians, believing or otherwise, Mary was born January 15 1842. They were tough times, and Mary had to find employment at an arly age to help the family and her seven siblings. She became a governess and teacher, moving to a small town in South Australia called Penola. It was a time when social services were non-existent, and the rural population severely disadvantaged, especially in terms of education and more so Catholic education, for children. Mary set about remedying that with the help of an insightful parish priest. Together they planned a Congregation of sisters who would work wherever there was a need but especially in rural areas. These Sisters are The Josephites, or more fully the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
The story is too long to tell it all here. There were very dark moments. The Bishop of Adelaide at one point excommunicated her! But she found great support, as did Don Bosco, from Pope Pius IX who set in motion the recognition that would eventually come for her Institute, in 1888. More trials - at one point she was deposed as Mother General, and fell out of favour with the very priest who had helped her found the Institute, but she accepted everything as God's will. "The will of God is to me a very dear book and I never tire of reading it".
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2010 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
