Sydney
24 August 2003

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Bl Mary Mackillop Feast Day ... by the people, for the people

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Bl Mary Mackillop Feast Day - ... By the people, for the people

Sr Helen Barnes with one of the Banners of Hope

By Marilyn Rodrigues

Sr Katrina Brill, congregational leader of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, says that on Mary MacKillop’s first official feast day after her beatification in 1995 a group of people arrived and asked to spend time with the sisters.

“The Josephites didn’t start our annual celebration,” she says. “The people did by just coming and saying ‘we want to be at Mary’s tomb today’, and then it was a matter of ‘when is the Mass?’ and ‘where’s the food?’ And we began to organise things.”

This year the community prepared for 4000 visitors to Bl Mary Mac

Killop’s house, her convent and tomb in North Sydney in honour of her feast day on August 8.

In all 130 volunteers acted as ushers, wardens and assistant caterers on the day that is becoming something of a multicultural religious fiesta with liturgy, food, music and dance.

Cardinal Edward Clancy celebrated the first of the day’s 20 Masses at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel and in Mary MacKillop Place.

Students from Holy Spirit College, Lakemba, Mt Saint Joseph, Milperra, Mary MacKillop College, Wakeley, St Ignatius College, Riverview, St Jerome’s, Punchbowl, and from St Joseph’s School of Irish Dancing provided entertainment throughout the day.

Adding to the festival atmosphere were 18-metre-long patchwork banners that hung on the outside of the Mary MacKillop Place Museum and from the balcony of Mary MacKillop’s house (Alma Cottage).

They were some of the 20 huge ‘Banners of Hope’ that hung from MacKillop’s Bridge at Orbost, Victoria, on last year’s feast day.

People from rural communities all over Australia created the banners by contributing 50,000 A4-sized fabric panels, each bearing a message of hope, encouragement or love.

Sr Helen Barnes, who organised the project, was a member of the Josephite Rural and Justice Network, which was looking for a way to mark the Year of the Outback that would lift the spirits of people affected by drought.

“We called it Unveiling Hope because doing it together uncovered people’s deep sense of hope and it connected communities,” she said.

“We, as present-day Josephites, see a need today; that people want to belong, have a community life.

“The problem we have today is that people are getting more and more isolated and disconnected from one another; this drew people together.”

Sr Katrina agrees that the feast day each year brings people together.

“What I appreciate about this day is the fact that Mary’s spirit is evoked in so many cultures all coming here today to celebrate what she means to them,” she said.

“It feels like that is what the Church really is, to come together and give praise to the goodness and Godness in all of us.

“The people who come have a spirit of celebration and feast that enhances the Australian culture and honours Mary’s spirit.

“And it’s a day out for many of them.”

Sr Katrina believes Mary MacKillop’s life story embodies characteristics which are integral to the Australian identity - a sense of ‘a fair go’ and siding with the vulnerable, a pioneering spirit and the ability to respect those of other beliefs and cultures.

People of all ages and from all over Sydney took part in the feast day celebrations this year.

They included workers from nearby offices; parents, such as Philip and Lucy Yeo from Blacktown, with their young families; and friends such as Pat Baker and Fay Ralphs, of Helensburg, who came with two busloads of people from their parish.