Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint and patron of the Archdiocese of Brisbane. We hear from Monica as she reflects on the enduring legacy of St Mary MacKillop and the profound impact her witness of faith and service has had on her family. May we draw inspiration from Mary’s words, “Never see a need without doing something about it,” and strive to follow her example of compassionate action. St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Transcript
I’m Monica Molloy and through my mother and through her experiences she has brought the love of Mary MacKillop to me and to my family. It had a profound effect on our family when we actually found out. When mum told us all about her being the first border at Mt. St. Joseph’s at Nundah. And in that year her father died in 1916. Mum was only twelve and a half at that stage And then later on her mother died of the black flu. The nuns gave her great support, an education and she learned a lot from being there with them and that was the legacy of Mary MacKillop. Mum always regarded the nuns as just up there, they were just wonderful to her. They provided the stability in this time of grief in her life. And also education and they really instilled a lot of responsibility into her and then she passed all of that onto, I mean she kept always telling us how wonderful the nuns were. Their warmth and humour and guidance stayed with her for life. That quiet strength and service that the Sisters gave to my mother is one of the clearest example I’ve known of Mary MacKillop and her legacy and action. The Sister’s influence did run deeply through my mother’s life and it shaped my own values. Mum was always kind and helpful and was always there to help anyone. I can remember where we lived at Wooloowin, you know, where she lived for 63 years, she spent a third of her life single, third of her life married, third of her life as a widow. Mum lived in that house for 63 years. And we always had visitors and she was always helping people out. And I think that was through what she had learned. The legacy of Mary MacKillop. Mary MacKillop, she was responsible for helping, she wasn’t lofty, she was hands on and obviously a very strong woman of faith. And that’s what I think mum was like that and that’s what she instilled into us. Mum always had a relic. Mum always said it was a piece of her gamp, it was a second class relic. And when I was going through my treatment of cancer my sister gave it back to me and all the nuns at the convent here at Nundah, they were all praying for me. So the nuns have shown me a lot since we’ve been here in 44 years. We still go back up there. But Mary MacKillop, this amazing woman, who right back in the late 1800s, went out and helped children who were poor off the street she went through I think it was in Melbourne at first and then she went to South Australia. But she helped people that would never normally got a chance in life. And I think that’s the group of starting the Sisters of St Joseph. She started that has been a profound effect and we’re living the legacy now. Mary MacKillop here in Australia, being our first Australia saint was just amazing. And so many people were able to go and join back on October 2010 in Rome and be part of that when she was beatified and became our first Australia saint. It’s wonderful we can celebrate her feast day on the 8th of August.