This Saturday, 8 August we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of The Cross Mackillop. This is the day she died in 1909 in Sydney at the age of 67. Mary’s influence on education and bringing God to the people, especially the poor, is one of the most remarkable stories in our Australian story. She remains our only Australian Saint. Yet she was an ordinary person who had deep love for God, deep love for people, a deep love for the poor. Mary believed that education sets a person free and she believed that Catholic children should learn about their Catholic faith through their parents and in school. Although Mary favoured the poor and the marginalised, she welcomed all and she befriended people at different levels of society.
Your family are part of a school community that recognises the Josephite Tradition and Mary MacKillop. We do this in our school badge “In Omnibus Caritas – In All Things Love” and in the name of our Year 4/5/6 classroom building – the Mary Mackillop Building.
The word ‘Tradition’ is often misunderstood as something form the past. Tradition is actually the lived expression of the values that inspired St Mary MacKillop and the sisters in the past and which are now expressed in today’s world.
Where do these values come from? The values come from the Gospel. They are Gospel values as Mary MacKillop interpreted the stories of Jesus in the Gospel and applied them in her life in her words and actions. Her determination to do so often at her own detriment is today one of the most amazing Australian story, a story born in South Australia and a story that has been told over and over and will continue to be a story that will influence generation to come.
Our school community is fortunate to be part of this story and, therefore we are part of the Mary MacKillop’s legacy and the Josephite Tradition is alive in us. Over the next few weeks I will explore what this tradition means as part of our school. Here is the first part...
So what is the Josephite Tradition?
Being part of a Josephite Tradition means to be a welcoming, inclusive, compassionate community. Mary MacKillop believed that the compassionate love of God was available to all she met. Mary Mackillop had a compassionate heart, big enough to enclose all humanity. No one was excluded.
Today in our school community we do the same. We include and welcome families of all cultures and all religious backgrounds, of all socio-economic backgrounds and, support children with special needs who we consider to have special rights. We promote compassion and empathy amongst our children. This week we demonstrate this in our annual Walk A Mile In My Boots activity and fundraising day. This action highlights our need to do something about homeless children, women and men in Adelaide. This is a real problem and our fundraising supports the Hutt Street Centre which provides emergency accommodation for the homeless. Have you seen the Boots on display in our Front Office and the Mary Mackillop building? These were awarded to us as the school that raised the most funds on this day. We have been awarded these for two consecutive years - 2018 and 2019. Please donate if you can this year using the Qkr! App.
God Bless
Craig Fosdike