The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
23 November 2003
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Sydney welcomes its newest cardinal
Not to be missed
Help for Jenny, Luke
Take heart from teenagers
Caritas stays put
Irishtown revisited
The company they keep
Pregnant pause: Making room for the little person
Editorial: Young hopefuls
Letters: Quiet revolutionary
Conversation: Fr Michael Anghel, parish priest and grandfather of three - Priest
made rite choice
Chance or Hand of God?
Presto, adagio, it’s art Caravaggio
The last retreat
Virtual boost to learning
‘Big kids’ meet ‘littlies’
Teacher, student in De La Salle double history win
Prize for playground plan
Gospel values alive in L’Arche
The company they keep
Venerable Mary Potter
By Marilyn Rodrigues
Religious sisters met staff and board members of Little Company of Mary Health Care at the site of the sisters’ first home to launch four heritage panels for display in the organisation’s facilities.
Each panel, created by graphic designer Chris Murray, depicts a different aspect of the life, mission and legacies of Venerable Mary Potter and her Little Company of Mary up to today.
The project was a Little Company of Mary national office initiative, undertaken by its heritage committee.
Sr Juliana Coulson, chair of the heritage committee, says: “This display shows where we come from, where we are at and where we are going in furthering Mary Potter’s vision around the world.
“Mary Potter died in 1919 and the growth of the Little Company of Mary during her lifetime was enormous; it grew so well internationally through our charism of prayer and care of the sick and the dying.
“And it is still growing.
“Apart from our Australian health care system, we have a presence in places such as New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Tonga, Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland and the US.”
Matthew Peel, director of mission at the Calvary Retirement Community, Cessnock, says there are only 370 Little Company of Mary Sisters worldwide “so the challenge in creating this display was to pass their mission, vision and philosophy to a staff who may not have a real lived experience of their particular spirituality”.
Little Company of Mary Health Care ministries include health care, hospice and home care of the dying, prison ministry, spiritual direction, catechesis, social work, parish ministries and nursing.
Bishop David Cremin was at the launch held at Lewisham Nursing Home to bless the panels and the ongoing work begun by the Sisters in Australia in 1885.
The Lewisham complex, which contained the congregation’s former Lewisham Hospital, is the site of the foundation of the Little Company of Mary in Australia.
The nursing home, run by the St Vincent de Paul Society which now occupies the complex, used to be the order’s convent and novitiate.
Simply being there for the launch brought back “rich and wonderful memories” for provincial leader, Sr Denise Hynes.
The panels will be displayed at each of the Little Company of Mary facilities.
They include Calvary Health Care Sydney (at Kogarah), Calvary Health Care Riverina (Wagga), Calvary Health Care Canberra, Calvary Health Care Bethlehem (Melbourne), Calvary Health Care Tasmania (Hobart), Calvary Health Care Adelaide, Calvary Retirement Community Ryde and the Calvary Retirement Community Cessnock.