During September, a 15-person group of archaeologists from Flinders University did some digging in Penola at the site of the first school set up there by Mother Mary MacKillop in 1866.

They found about 50 relics, including an 1839 coin, a thimble, a marble, a lamp base and what seem to be writing slates and slate pencils.

Local organiser of Penola’s “Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre”, Claire Larkin, says the number of visitors to Penola seeking info about Saint MMK is up 20 percent on last year:

“People are just taken with the story and they are finding they can learn a lot more in Penola.”

* * *

Are they? We should all learn more about Saint Mary of the Cross.

If we were all more like Saint M, Australia would be a happier, more just and more holy place.

A visit to Penola might help(?)

Reading her writings certainly would — available through any religious bookstore.

Readers will discover that she isn’t quite like what we’ve been told.

She was no rebel, no multiculturalist . . . .

 She was thoroughly Catholic — a traditionalist —  nothing whatever in common with the spirit of the 1960s Second Vatican Council.

Shortly before she died, she wrote, “I have not changed with the times, and with God’s help, never shall.”

The MK minders at Penola and the whole hierarchy of the Australian Church may try to modify and modernise her message — but we should try to avoid being duped.

God will find ways to get the real message of Saint Mary MacKillop through to the people of Australia . . . in his own time and in his own way.

In the year 1867, on August 15, Mary MacKillop took her vows as “Sister Mary of the Cross” and became a nun of the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

In a letter to her mother, she wrote, “I little imagined that I could so soon have the happiness of being allowed to make my religious profession, which I did on my favourite festival, the Assumption.”

Her favourite festival?

Yes, Mary MacKillop had a great love for the Blessed Virgin, right from childhood.

It is important to remember that Saint Mary MacKillop had a faith that was simple and traditional and, in some ways, child-like.

A pity the rest of us, in our day, too seldom follow her in that.

* * *

Mary MacKillop was NOT a rebel.

She was NOT a feminist.

She wasn’t even glamorous — despite the prettied-up pictures used in her modern day publicity.

Mary MacKillop attended Mass every Sunday and every holy day. She insisted that her Sisters and her converts did the same.

She went to Confession regularly. She insisted that her Sisters and converts did the same.

She was pure and modest. She rescued prostitutes from brothels and gave them refuges to live in until they found a better life.

Dear Mary MacKillop, Saint Mary of the Cross, pray for us that we might be faithful to Our Lord as you were.

P.S. As far as I know, the only book about Mary MacKillop that is fair to her, presenting her in all her Catholic goodness – not dressing her up as some kind of modern “ecumenist” — is “The REAL Mary MacKillop”, written by modest me.

Due to troubles with PayPal, you probably can’t get it by clicking the buttons as per this page.

If you want a copy, please write by surface mail to PO Box 533 Mildura 3502 Victoria, Australia.

The price is supposedly $20 or something. You can have it for nothing if you prefer. It will reach you by surface mail fairly promptly.

July 31 is, for Catholics, the feast day of Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556).

A soldier by profession, Ignatius, while convalescing from a leg wound, did some reading including a book entitled “Lives of the Saints”.

This affected him so much that he decided to devote the rest of his life to God.

He became a priest and founded the Society of Jesus (otherwise known as the Jesuits).

He composed a program of “Spiritual Exercises” – 30 days of guided meditations on examining one’s conscience, contemplating the Passion of Christ and making practical resolutions re how to live so as to please God.

* * *

The Exercises have been adapted to a 5-day form suitable for lay people.

They start with what Saint Ignatius calls, “The First Principle and Foundation” of life:

“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his soul.

All other things on the face of the earth are created for men in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.

It follows that one must use other created things, insofar as they help towards that end — and free oneself from them, insofar as they are obstacles to that end.

Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things — not wanting health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one – desiring and choosing only what helps us more towards that end for which we are created.”

* * *

The Exercises are a crash course in taking life seriously.

We have one life.

In it we decide our attitude to God.

Just one life, then  judgement.

If an American told you that he comes from New Orleans (rhyming with “beans”), what would you know about him for certain?

You would know that he is lying.

If he really came from that city, he would say he comes from New Orleans (rhyming with “fallen”).

So now you know.

* * *

If somebody said he has no fear of death . . . .

“Not even one scintilla . . . .”

As one media personality allegedly said the other day, before having a deceased person’s liver transplanted into him . . . .

What do we know about him?

Oh yes, we all fear death. Even people who say they don’t.

And so we should.

* * *

At death, one stops having choices.

One enters eternity. Very unfamiliar.

There our Creator awaits us.

God loves us – otherwise we would never have existed.

But, what if we have made ourselves incapable of responding to his love — by a lifetime of habitual indulgence of our whims and passions in defiance of him?

That’s what hell is.

Anyway, at least we know about it and can devote the rest of our lives to making sure we avoid it.

* * *

If hell wasn’t a possibility, heaven would not be heaven. We would be robots.

If God had made us incapable of disobedience, our “obedience” would be based on no ability to choose.

We would not really exist.

Think about these words of Saint Catherine of Siena:

“God’s mercy is known in all his creatures, both the just and the unjust.

In the height of heaven, God’s mercy shines . . . .

If I turn to the earth, his mercy is everywhere.

Even in the darkness of hell his mercy is seen, for he does not punish the damned as much as they deserve.”

(No, but those in hell are eaten away by the cancer of remorse – knowing they could have been enjoying God forever, but have irrevocably cut themselves off.)

The Josephite Sisters, the Catholic Order founded by Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop (Saint Mary of the Cross), have published a fourth collection of their founder’s letters — those written around the time of her “excommunication”.

The book, entitled, “Mary MacKillop and a Nest of Crosses”, was launched on June 17 at the Mary MacKillop Centre, Kensington, South Australia.

The launching received a couple of mentions in Catholic publications.

The rest of the media took no notice whatever.

Do they consider Saint Mary MacKillop to be of no interest whatever to the average Australian?

* * *

One letter MMK wrote to her mother after the excommunication drama was over, reveals what a forgiving, God-centred person Saint Mary Mac was:

“The poor Bishop is indeed sorry for all now. I was sent for on Friday but only got halfway to where the bishop was when a good priest met me and in the Bishop’s name removed the sentence from me . . . . Thanks be to God, the poor Bishop had true priests near at a time when he much needed them. Up to that time others were near. We will not speak of them – but it would be a charity to pray for at least some amongst them . . . .

God wisely permitted it for a hidden and mysterious end. I hope that our common sorrows have done us all good . . . .

My path, my dearest Mamma, will yet be that of the Cross. I seek nothing else . . . .

I can’t tell you much more about the new book. I have sent my money, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

It can be ordered online from St Paul’s Bookshop, at http://www.stpauls.com.au/

Last October, when Mary MacKillop was canonised, everyone was talking about miracles.

Before recognising a new saint, the Church waits until two miraculous cures following prayers to the saint are investigated and found genuine.

Mockers of the Catholic Faith despise miracles.

David Marr, in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Let me whisper this from the back of the crowd gathering for the celebrations in Rome: miracles don’t happen.”

Mr Marr is a real believer.

He believes in infallibility — not the Pope’s infallibility — the infallibility of David Marr.

“Miracles don’t happen”. How do we know? Mr Marr said so. End of story.

Marr is, in fact, a fundamentalist. Whatever the evidence, his belief is fixed. Nothing can shake it.

* * *

The Bible records 34 miracles done by Jesus.

The gospel writers simply recorded what they saw.

Christ’s enemies never denied his having done miracles.

The High Priest, Caiphas, suggested they were “works of the devil”, but he knew better than to deny the miracles themselves.

The people he was talking to had seen them with their own eyes.

* * *

At Mass today, the Gospel reading describes a miracle known as the Transfiguration:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain: and he was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun: his garments white like  snow.

And there appeared Moses and Elias, talking with him.

Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here: let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.’

As he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.’

The disciples hearing it,  fell upon their faces.

Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Arise, and fear not.’

As they came down from the mountain, Jesus told them: ‘Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.’

* * *

Jesus was saying that an even bigger miracle was coming – the Resurrection.

It came. The apostles who witnessed it based their whole lives around this greatest miracle — the one we celebrate at Easter.

Easter is unique.

Don’t waste it.

Use it as a time of relating to God — not just as a holiday weekend.