Mary MacKillop

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Australia, Josephites, religious life, saints, St. Mary MacKillop, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Having lived what I sometimes call “a charmed life,” I am often amazed at the zeal and the difficulties of those that we Roman Catholics (and others) call saints. I wonder if I wouldn’t have given up by now if I had come up against betrayal and poor treatment (including excommunication for a time!) from colleagues and church officials encountered by St. Mary MacKillop – the first named saint of Australia and the “Saint of the Day” on the Franciscan Media website for today.

Mary’s desire was simply to teach children and care for the poor, especially in rural areas throughout her native Australia. She was drawn to religious life but unable to find a religious community that met her needs, so she founded – with her spiritual director, Fr. Julian Woods, – the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites). Born in 1842, she was steadfast in her vision and by the end of her life in 1909 saw her congregation thriving. Her path to sainthood is well-documented on http://www.franciscanmedia.org and is worth a read as a good example of the adage: Never give up!

 

 

 

 

 

Family Ties

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Australia, bring your entire self to the moment, close family, family, Jesus, Mark, mission, pay attention, right relationship, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, will of God

Yesterday my sister forwarded an e-mail message she had received from our cousin Chris from Australia that included a family photo from 2013, celebrating the 99th birthday of the patriarch, whose wife (only 93 years young) sat beside him. Now Aunt Dory is the last survivor from that generation. The picture is symbolic of a happy reconnection with the Australian branch of our family that began during “The Troubles” in Ireland in the 1800’s. Two of my grandmother’s elder sisters accompanied a childless neighbor couple to Australia to become a family with a chance for a better life – a huge sacrifice for my great-grandparents but a blessing for the two girls. As I scanned the photo trying to see in the 60-something cousins vestiges of the children whose pictures we kept in shoeboxes with our own during my young life nostalgia settled in and I vowed to rekindle my correspondence with my cousin Rosemary, sitting there with her husband, children and grandchildren. The internet will make reconnection easier; I hope I will keep my promise.

Things are different now than in the time of Jesus – as well as in the generations before my parents. People were more often born and buried in the same town and it was rare for families to live as far apart as we do now. My nuclear family is a good example. In the years before my parents’ deaths we were one each in New York State, Virginia and California with two in Florida. for a close family like ours that was and is quite a challenge. Our lives have been full and primary commitments keep us busy. Visits are rare but we continue to value the successful jockeying of schedules that brings us together.

I think all of this helps me to understand the situation of Jesus (MK 3:31-35) when the crowd around him said that his mother & siblings were outside to see him. His response of “whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother” points up to me the willingness of Jesus to follow the path before him, the mission he had been given, with an understanding of right relationship. He did not send his relatives away; my guess is that they had a wonderful visit after the crowd had dispersed. I think what he was saying to the crowd was something like this: “Pay attention to what you’re doing and do it until you finish. Then do the next thing fully – bringing your entire self to the moment. In that way nothing is wasted and no one is ignored.”

Praise for the Women

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Anna, Australia, brave women, family, Luke, Messiah, old age, prophetess, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, widow, willingness

Recently my sister told me that she had been in contact with our cousin Christopher who lives in Australia. We were both happy as we did not wish to lose the link to our past that our mother had kept up until the 1990’s. The connection to Australia began with our great-grandmother who had many children in the difficult years of the 1800’s in Ireland. As the story goes, a neighbor couple was moving to Australia where life promised better times. They had no children and asked our great grandmother if she would give them one of her girls to accompany them, promising that they would give her a good life. Her startling reply lives in me as a testament to selflessness and courage. She said, “No, I won’t give you one, but I’ll give you two,” assuring that they would be companions for one another in a new land. Thus, a whole new branch of our family was begun in Australia, followed soon by another of those who settled in Massachusetts, USA.

I was thinking of this and all the brave, unsung women I have known – many who have lived to a “ripe old age” and been models for me of “everyday holiness.” Today’s gospel speaks of Anna, the prophetess. Luke says she was advanced in years, having lived with her husband for seven years and then as a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. (LK 2:36-40) She is not remembered for great deeds but for her fidelity and steadfastness as she waited for the Messiah whom she recognized when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple as was the custom of the day. Like Simeon, she had longed to see the “day of the Lord” and when it arrived, she felt she had fulfilled her mission. My guess is that she was never ostentatious but that people were aware of her holiness because it shone out of her from the inner light of relationship with God.

Today, then, I give thanks for brave women who live their lives quietly (or not so quietly) who have (perhaps) lived into old age doing what is before them to do, whose glory is in their willingness and their trust that God is their constant companion on this journey we call life.