As we celebrate the canonisation of Mary MacKillop this weekend, it is also a good time to reflect on how we can continue her mission of education and service to those in need, particularly our youth. Mary MacKillop understood that young people need special care in order to grow into their full potential.
In this edition of Province Express, Julie Edwards from Jesuit Social Services asks us to look at how our society treats young offenders. She points out that there is strong evidence that young people in detention have had shocking starts to their lives. ‘Many young people who have committed crimes are themselves the victims of abuse and neglect’, she says.
I feel sure that Mary MacKillop would say a resounding ‘Amen’ to Julie’s call for a stronger investment in early childhood care, education and training. As Josephite Sr Anne Derwin says, Mary MacKillop was ‘totally committed to God’s mission of bringing to the poor the message of their human dignity and of Christ’s saving love’.
Mary’s deep interior union with God is the key to her greatness. She believed that God knew her intimately and loved her. She responded by giving all her love and her whole life to God. She felt sustained by God’s love, and the courage and strength she drew from God helped her to pursue Christ’s mission of bringing hope to the marginalised, particularly the young.
Our Province is committed to helping young people experience that interior union with God through the MAGiS program. The MAGiS 2010 National Retreat in Sevenhill will offer young people from around Australia an opportunity to deepen their love of God, and to find in God’s love a source of courage and strength to do great things for God and for God’s poor.
It was ultimately Mary’s intimate union with God that gave her courage when she encountered Church leaders who were not the apostles of God’s love that they were called to be. Mary believed that God would vindicate her and redeem her life. Like so many saints throughout history, Mary MacKillop was an ordinary person who responded to God’s grace in her life and she has been vindicated. She believed that God is redeeming our world and redeeming each of us.
Fr Paul Gardiner SJ says what God has done in the life of Mary is what God can do in the lives of any of us. Mary is now being proclaimed to all the world as a woman of heroic goodness and holiness. We pray that she will inspire others to follow in her footsteps.
Fr Steve Curtin SJ, Provincial
Additional note that I received from the Australian Jesuit Paul Fyfe:
There's a lovely setting of this by the Jesuit composer, Christopher Willcock. The sheet music for his SATB version can be found at:
http://www.marymackillop.org.au/resources/index.cfm?loadref=118
He has also set "Love's last song" by Rowe.
No comments:
Post a Comment