Principal's Message

Celebrations of all sorts have been different over the last 18 months or so. Last week a very important celebration came and went but is one that we should acclaim very loudly. The 8th of August is the feast day of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint. During these past months people across the world have been dealing with the reality and impact of the coronavirus. So those who wished to show their devotion to Saint Mary MacKillop have had to celebrate her life differently. Churches have been empty and Masses and Liturgies have been live streamed. Pilgrimage sites have not been accessible and her people needed to draw upon other means to mark this special day in the life of the Church. Sometimes it is best to go to the source and see what her words might do to lift our spirits. One thing that Mary MacKillop loved to do was write and we are blessed that her words are still filled with much life today. For example, in 1907 she wrote to the Sisters:

We must let no obstacles deter us from proceeding with courage in the path marked out for us.  It may sometimes be dark and full of windings, but a beautiful bright light shines at the end of this path and a few more windings will bring us to it.

The example of Mary MacKillop is still with us today. Now we remember her as a saint but in her time of living she was very much a human being who experienced ups and downs and challenges like we all do. History tells us that she suffered from ill-health and was close to death at certain times. In this way her spirit is in communion with those who have been challenged by COVID-19. In times of distress and illness she found solace in those who travelled along beside her. She writes:

I was for many weeks dangerously ill, so ill that I nearly died … I was weary of the world and its crosses … The mental conflict had been too much for me

                                                                                              Lesley O’Brien, Mary MacKillop Unveiled

Mary MacKillop, like many in our community, also shared the experience of disappointment in work and unemployment as her father was not able to hold down a permanent job. Mary and her family were constantly on the move which placed extra stress on family life and she needed to look for work to support the family. It is with this background that Mary MacKillop famously told her sisters: 

Never see a need without doing something about it

She was acutely conscious of the needs of the people about her – for basic education, for care, for food. She dedicated her life to doing something about those needs – heroically and most effectively. But inspiring it all and sustaining it all was the vision of God she learned from scriptural passages projecting not just material help and opportunity, but the sense that each person is precious in God’s eyes, is loved by God, and therefore is to be valued and given dignity.

Let us remember that Mary MacKillop encourages us to keep alive the flame of hope, bringing comfort to those who have lost loved ones or employment, and supporting those whose lives have been changed forever through the COVID-19 pandemic.  As a faith based community we pray to her and remember her words:

God is good and has brought light and help when all was very dark

                                                                                                                                   Mary MacKillop 1899

Raymond Pisani

Principal