Feast of St Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first Saint, founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Because of her determination to keep her order independent from control by local bishops she had to endure a relentless campaign of harassment and vilification.
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For some time she was even excommunicated by one bishop, though in the end she won support for from the Vatican. She referred to such ordeals as “presents from God.” Innocent suffering, she believed, was an opportunity to shoulder the cross and so to grow closer to God.
Those who caused this suffering were thus “instruments in the hands of God,” indeed, her “most powerful benefactors.” Nevertheless, she acknowledged that “God’s presents were often hard to understand.” She died Aug 5 1909.
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