From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

August 8th - Saint Mary of the Cross
(MacKillop, Mary Helen)

Mary Helen MacKillop (1842-1909), known in life as Mother Mary of the
Cross, was born on 15 January 1842 in Fitzroy, Melbourne, the eldest
of eight children of Alexander McKillop and his wife Flora, n=C3=A9e
McDonald. Her parents had migrated from the Lochaber area in
Inverness-shire and married soon after they reached Melbourne. After a prosperous start the family became impoverished.

Mary was educated at private schools but chiefly by her father who had
studied for the priesthood at Rome. To help her family Mary became in
turn a shopgirl, a governess, and at Portland a teacher in the
Catholic Denominational School and proprietress of a small boarding
school for girls. As she grew to womanhood Mary was probably
influenced by an early friend of the family, Father Patrick Geoghegan,
and began to yearn for a strictly penitential form of religious life. Concluding she would have to go to Europe to execute her plan, she
placed herself under the direction of Father Julian Tenison-Woods who,
as parish priest of Penola in South Australia sometimes visiting
Melbourne and Portland, wanted to found a religious society, 'The
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart'; they were to live in
poverty and dedicate themselves to educating poor children. With Mary
its first member and Superior the society was founded at Penola on 19
March 1866 with the approval of Bishop Laurence Sheil. By then she was
spelling her surname MacKillop. The Sisterhood spread to Adelaide and
other parts of South Australia, and increased rapidly in membership
but ran into difficulties. Tenison-Woods had become director of
Catholic schools and conflicted with some of the clergy over
educational matters. One priest with influence over the bishop
declared publicly he would ruin the director through the Sisterhood.
The result was that Mary was excommunicated by Bishop Sheil on 22
September 1871 for alleged insubordination; most of the schools were
closed and the Sisterhood almost disbanded. The excommunication was
removed on 21 February 1872 by order of the bishop nine days before he
died.

In 1873 at Rome Mary obtained papal approval of the Sisterhood but the
Rule of Life laid down by Tenison-Woods and sanctioned by the bishop
on 17 December 1868 was discarded and another drawn up. Tenison-Woods
blamed her for not doing enough to have his Rule accepted and this
caused a permanent breach between them. She travelled widely in Europe
visiting schools and observing methods of teaching, and returned to
Adelaide on 4 January 1875. In March she was elected Superior-General
of the Sisterhood. In journeys throughout Australasia she established
schools, convents and charitable institutions but came into conflict
with those bishops who preferred diocesan control of the Sisterhood
rather than central control from Adelaide. In 1883 Bishop Christopher
Reynolds, misunderstanding the extent of his jurisdiction over the
Sisterhood, told her to leave his diocese. She then transferred the headquarters of the Sisterhood to Sydney. On 11 May 1901 she suffered
a stroke at Rotorua, New Zealand. Although retaining her mental
faculties, she was an invalid until she died in Sydney on 8 August
1909.

Mary's finest feature was her large blue eyes. Affectionate but
determined, her virtues were multitudinous with charity towards her
neighbour outshining all. Always regarded as holy, she was put forward
in 1972 as a candidate for the honour of beatification and
canonisation and on 1 February 1973 the Cause was formally introduced.
Mary was beatified on 19 January 1995 at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney,
in a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II. She was canonised as Saint
Mary of the Cross at a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St
Peter's Square in the Vatican on 17 October 2010.

Select Bibliography
Life of Mother Mary, Foundress of the Sacred Heart, Westmead (Syd, 1916)
O. Thorpe, Mary McKillop (Lond, 1957)
Archives, Archdiocese of Adelaide, Congregation for the Propagation of
the Faith (Rome), Sisters of St Joseph (North Sydney).


Saint Quote:
God has loved us from all eternity. Children of men, says the Lord,
remember that I first loved you. You had not yet been born, the world
itself did not exist, and even then I loved you. As long as I am God,
I have loved you; I have loved you as long as I have loved Myself.
--St. Alphonsus Liguori

Bible Quote:
Give to every one that asketh thee: and of him that taketh away thy
goods, ask them not again. (Luke 6:30) DRB


<><><><>
The tree of life

"The tree of life represents the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the faithful, as St. Paul says" 'Do you not know that your body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit within you?' (1 Cor. 6:19). The tree of knowledge of good
and evil represents our senses which produce contrasting fruits pleasure an=
d
pain. Each of these is divided again into two there is pleasure arising fro=
m
natural needs, and there is pleasure resulting from debauchery; then there
is pain coming as a consequence of struggle and spiritual burdens. The
fruits are good if we pluck them, keeping close to nature at the right
season. God has planted this tree in our hearts, this sense of good and
evil, for a good purpose to test us, to make trial of our obedience, to giv=
e
us the opportunity to live in accordance with nature or not, as we choose,
and to follow what leads to perfection or what leads to imperfection." --Nicetas Stithatus.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)