Love of Learning

How Can We Build & Maintain Esteem in Our Community?

• Showing care for myself like wearing my uniform correctly
• Showing an in interest in what others are thinking and doing
• Using positive and encouraging words towards everyone I meet
• Using positive self talk like - ‘I can do this!’
• Performing random acts of kindness - like carrying someone’s telling someone how good their work is
• use a growth mindset and just giving new things a go
• looking, smiling and saying hello

These are just some of the ways that we can build and maintain esteem while developing a Love of Learning.

A Closer Look at:

MacKillop

The Good Samaritan MacKillop House is named after St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. 

Mary Helen MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in what is now the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria (at the time part of an area called Newtown in the then British colony of New South Wales), to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. 

Mary MacKillop's parents lived in Roybridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland, prior to emigrating to Australia.

Mary MacKillop's father and mother married in Melbourne on 14 July 1840. MacKillop was the eldest of their eight children. Her younger siblings were Margaret ("Maggie", 1843–1872), John (1845–1867), Annie (1848–1929), Alexandrina ("Lexie", 1850–1882), Donald (1853–1925), Alick (who died at 11 months old) and Peter (1857–1878). Donald became a Jesuit priest and worked among the Aborigines in the Northern Territory. Lexie became a member of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Melbourne.

Mary MacKillop was educated at private schools and by her father. She received her First Holy Communion on 15 August 1850 at the age of nine. In February 1851, Alexander MacKillop left his family behind after having mortgaged the farm and their livelihood and made a trip to Scotland lasting some 17 months. Throughout his life he was a loving father and husband but not successful as either a farmer or gold prospector. Consequently, the family faced many hardships.

MacKillop started work at the age of 16 as a clerk in a stationery store in Melbourne.  To provide for her needy family, in 1860 she took a job as governess at the estate of her aunt and uncle, Alexander and Margaret MacKillop Cameron in Penola, South Australia where she was to look after their children and teach them. Already set on helping the poor whenever possible, she included the other farm children on the Cameron estate as well. This brought her into contact with Fr Julian Tenison-Woods, who had been the parish priest in the south east since his ordination to the priesthood in 1857 after completing his studies at Sevenhill.

Founding of Schools and Religious Congregation

In 1866, Julian Tenison-Woods invited MacKillop and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and to open a Catholic school. Woods was appointed director of education and became the founder, along with MacKillop, of a school they opened in a stable there. After renovations by their brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than 50 children. At this time MacKillop made a declaration of her dedication to God and began wearing black.

On 21 November 1866, the feast day of the Presentation of Mary, several other women joined MacKillop and her sisters. MacKillop adopted the religious name of "Sister Mary of the Cross" and she and Lexie began wearing simple religious habits. The small group began to call themselves the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and moved to a new house in Grote Street, Adelaide. There they founded a new school at the request of the bishop, Laurence Sheil OFM.

The "rule of life" developed by Woods and MacKillop for the community emphasized poverty, a dependence on divine providence, no ownership of personal belongings, faith that God would provide and willingness to go where needed. The rule of life was approved by Bishop Sheil. By the end of 1867, ten other women had joined the Josephites, who adopted a plain brown religious habit. Due to the colour of their attire and their name, the Josephite sisters became colloquially known as the Brown Joeys.

Canonisation and Commemoration

In 1925, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph, Mother Laurence, began the process to have MacKillop declared a saint and Michael Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney, established a tribunal to carry the process forward. The process for MacKillop's beatification began in 1926, was interrupted in 1931 but began again in April 1951 and was closed in September of that year. After several years of hearings, close examination of MacKillop's writings and a 23-year delay, the initial phase of investigations was completed in 1973.  A longtime and prominent non-Catholic promoter of her cause was poet-bookseller Max Harris. After further investigations, MacKillop's "heroic virtue" was declared in 1992. That same year, the church endorsed the belief that Veronica Hopson, apparently dying of leukaemia in 1961, was cured by praying for MacKillop's intercession; MacKillop was beatified on 19 January 1995 by Pope John Paul II.  For the occasion of the beatification, the Croatian-Australian artist Charles Billich was commissioned to paint MacKillop's official commemorative.

On 19 December 2009, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a papal decree formally recognising a second miracle, the complete and permanent cure of Kathleen Evans of inoperable lung and secondary brain cancer in the 1990s.  Kathleen Evans went on to publish in 2012 with Penguin Books, The Story Behind Saint Mary MacKillop's second Miracle. Her canonisation was announced on 19 February 2010 and subsequently took place on 17 October 2010. This made her the first Australian to be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.

At Good Samaritan, MacKillop House is represented by the colour Green.