Australian National Pilgrimage 2022

St Mary MacKillop statue located at St Mary of the Cross Square opposite Mary’s birth site in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne – one of the sites visited on the Australian National Pilgrimage.

In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop – Bookings for Australian National Pilgrimage Now Open

Mary MacKillop Place and the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart are delighted to welcome back pilgrims to its popular Australian National Pilgrimage: In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop. The next pilgrimage will be running from 18 – 29 October 2022 and will visit many places associated with Mary MacKillop’s life and ministry in Victoria, South Australia and Sydney.

The Pilgrimage is run by Mary MacKillop Place and will be led by a Sister from the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the inaugural Director of the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre, East Melbourne.

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Celebrating June Feast Days with Mary MacKillop

During the month of June, we have the opportunity as followers of Mary MacKillop, to recall and celebrate the great feast days of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (24 June) and St John the Baptist (25 June).

Our Josephite constitutions expresses Mary’s hope that:

God’s compassionate love, symbolised for Mary MacKillop by the Sacred Heart, would become a reality for her sisters and the people with whom they shared their lives.Constitutions – Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart

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Aussie Camino Experience

Aussie Camino participants at the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre in Penola, South Australia.

Jim Phelan recently completed the ‘Aussie Camino’ and shares his experience with us.

The Aussie Camino is a pilgrimage walk inspired by the life and journeys of Sisters of Saint Joseph founders St Mary MacKillop and Fr Julian Tenison Woods. It is an opportunity for participants to embark on a contemplative journey, visit scenic places, meet and connect with new people. The walk begins in Portland, Victoria and ends in Penola, South Australia covering over 150 kilometres.

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Remembering Mary MacKillop’s mother Flora

Flora MacKillop.

On Sunday 8 May, many families throughout our country will be celebrating the wonder and joy of experiencing motherhood and being mothered.

For others, Mother’s Day brings sadness and a sense of loss. In troubled places throughout the world mothers are separated from children, and children are living with the awful memory of losing their parents through massacre and war.

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A pilgrim’s ‘light-bulb’ moment

A Mary MacKillop Walk group pausing to remember Doctor John Benson at his Memorial in Kensington, Adelaide SA.
Mary MacKillop Museum visitors pondering the stories of the Barr Smiths and Emanuel Solomon.

Recently, the staff and volunteers of Mary MacKillop Museum in Adelaide were delighted to welcome a busload of interstate pilgrims, one of whom, after spending quite some time in the museum, was hungry for ‘the more’.

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The Hope and Faith of Mary MacKillop

Why do you think that everything is hopeless, that no one can take away your own tombstones? Why do you give in to resignation and failure? Easter is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside. God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness.
Pope Francis, Homily, April 2019

The massacre of the innocent, the ravages of war and the displacement of people engender fear, desperation, and a sense of hopelessness. We also feel the pain of the flood victims left homeless and poverty stricken. Devastation and hardship call upon every ounce of faith and hope we have, to claim and look forward to a brighter future.

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A Letter to Mary MacKillop

Photo by lilartsy.

To commemorate the anniversary for when Mary MacKillop received Constitutions of the Institute (Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart) and when Central Government was accepted on 21 April 1874, Sr Maria Casey shares what she would have written to Mary if she was alive today.

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Lent and the life of Mary MacKillop

Jane Woolford, CEO of Mary MacKillop Today.

CEO of Mary MacKillop Today, Jane Woolford, shares her personal reflections in this Lenten season.

There is no doubt that hardship is all around us. Right here in Australia, people are enduring devastating damage from the floods. We are still feeling the difficult impacts of the pandemic, and overseas we are seeing a horrendous war play out with children and families caught in the crossfire.

During Lent, we reflect on the themes of sacrifice, justice and almsgiving.

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