ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY REPORT:
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
25 Jul 2012
During her trip across Australia as part of the Travelling Sisters Roadshow, Sister Julianne Murphy visited one primary school where after speaking of the great work of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, she discussed the legacy of Australia's first saint and how grants from the Mary MacKillop Foundation helped change lives.
"I thought I had got the point across fairly well managing to highlight the great name of Mary MacKillop and how she and now the Foundation had changed many lives," she says.
But a five-year-old boy in the front row quickly put her straight.
"That's nothing," he said. "Jesus changed water into wine!"
Sr Julianne bursts out laughing. "The wonderful thing about children is you never know what they are going to say next and whenever something like this happens it takes all my self control to keep a straight face."
The South Australian-born Sister of St Joseph made an epic journey across the country last year in her brightly-coloured van visiting 107 schools and meeting with an estimated 28,400 children. She also visited many of the towns and communities where grants of up to $10,000 from the Mary MacKillop Foundation are supporting community-based self-help life and changing initiatives.
The Sisters Travelling Roadshow was created as a way to talk to children across Australia as well as their families, and help them cope and rebuild after the devastating floods that swept across Queensland, NSW and Victoria. The Roadshow also provided a way to help children deal with WA's devastating bushfires or Queensland's Cyclone Yasi.
"Even children not directly affected by these natural disasters were impacted," Sr Julianne explains and relates how just watching television footage of these events can create worry and stress.
A teacher for more than 20 years at schools in South Australia's sprawling Port Pirie Diocese, Sr Julianne understands and loves children, and finds driving the length and breadth of Australia for the second year in a row "stimulating, exciting and fascinating."
"What continues to amaze me is how even in the smallest and most remote corners of Australia, everyone seems to have heard of Mary MacKillop and are keen to know more," she says.
Last year's Roadshow was originally intended to end after nine months of travelling, culminating on 17 March , the first anniversary of the canonisation of the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
However demand from schools became so great, that not only was last year's Roadshow extended by more than a month, but this year Sr Julianne found herself back on the road again.
"This year the Roadshow also included Tasmania which missed out last year and it was a wonderful few weeks, especially as I was able to meet the recipients of two of the latest grants given by the Mary MacKillop Foundation," she says.
One was a young Aboriginal girl who was given a Student Tertiary Scholarship by the Foundation enabling her to study for a degree in psychology at the University of Hobart. The other was a grant to the Migrant Women's Centre in Hobart which supports refugee and migrant women settle into their new lives in Australia.
"The Roadshow has also given me a chance to spread the word about the Foundation and how community groups or individuals can apply for the grants for projects that will make a difference," Sr Julianne says.
On the road since March this year, Sr Julianne has visited schools, towns and cities across Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. During this time she has clocked up 15500 kilometres, met with more than 15,600 children and visited 66 schools.
"Schools across the country we missed last year, flooded us with invitations. But what was unusual is that the invitations not only came from Catholic schools but from state schools as well," she says.
Sr Julianne admits she was initially surprised government schools would allow a religious group such as herself and the sisters accompanying her into their classrooms to talk about St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and her legacy.
"But public schools see her as an historical figure active in social justice," she says adding that across Australia there is a growing and deepening awareness of the legacy of Mary MacKillop.
"People from all walks of life and faith have taken her to their hearts," she says.
The next leg of Sr Julianne's journey will take her from Holbrook on to Wagga Wagga and Wyalong then Canberra and Goulburn, Kiama and finally to Sydney on 6 August.
She will spend more than a week visiting schools across the city and then it will be on to Orange, Dubbo, Nyngan, Bourke, Dunedoo, Muswellbrook before heading north.
By September Sr Julianne and her Travelling Roadshow will be in Queensland and a train will take her and the van to Townsville where she'll head west to Mt Isa and outback Australia.
"The Roadshow was set to end in late Ocrtober but there are so many bookings it now looks like we'll still be going throughout most of November," she says.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
25 Jul 2012
Roadshow"s Sr Julian DellaFranca and Sr Julianne Murphy
with young students from St Michael's Primary
at Bassandean, WA
with young students from St Michael's Primary
at Bassandean, WA
"I thought I had got the point across fairly well managing to highlight the great name of Mary MacKillop and how she and now the Foundation had changed many lives," she says.
But a five-year-old boy in the front row quickly put her straight.
"That's nothing," he said. "Jesus changed water into wine!"
Sr Julianne bursts out laughing. "The wonderful thing about children is you never know what they are going to say next and whenever something like this happens it takes all my self control to keep a straight face."
The South Australian-born Sister of St Joseph made an epic journey across the country last year in her brightly-coloured van visiting 107 schools and meeting with an estimated 28,400 children. She also visited many of the towns and communities where grants of up to $10,000 from the Mary MacKillop Foundation are supporting community-based self-help life and changing initiatives.
The Sisters Travelling Roadshow was created as a way to talk to children across Australia as well as their families, and help them cope and rebuild after the devastating floods that swept across Queensland, NSW and Victoria. The Roadshow also provided a way to help children deal with WA's devastating bushfires or Queensland's Cyclone Yasi.
Sr Julianne and children join in a rousing cheer
for Mary MacKillop
for Mary MacKillop
A teacher for more than 20 years at schools in South Australia's sprawling Port Pirie Diocese, Sr Julianne understands and loves children, and finds driving the length and breadth of Australia for the second year in a row "stimulating, exciting and fascinating."
"What continues to amaze me is how even in the smallest and most remote corners of Australia, everyone seems to have heard of Mary MacKillop and are keen to know more," she says.
Last year's Roadshow was originally intended to end after nine months of travelling, culminating on 17 March , the first anniversary of the canonisation of the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
However demand from schools became so great, that not only was last year's Roadshow extended by more than a month, but this year Sr Julianne found herself back on the road again.
"This year the Roadshow also included Tasmania which missed out last year and it was a wonderful few weeks, especially as I was able to meet the recipients of two of the latest grants given by the Mary MacKillop Foundation," she says.
the newly painted bus for 2012's Travelling Roadshow
"The Roadshow has also given me a chance to spread the word about the Foundation and how community groups or individuals can apply for the grants for projects that will make a difference," Sr Julianne says.
On the road since March this year, Sr Julianne has visited schools, towns and cities across Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. During this time she has clocked up 15500 kilometres, met with more than 15,600 children and visited 66 schools.
"Schools across the country we missed last year, flooded us with invitations. But what was unusual is that the invitations not only came from Catholic schools but from state schools as well," she says.
Sr Julianne admits she was initially surprised government schools would allow a religious group such as herself and the sisters accompanying her into their classrooms to talk about St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and her legacy.
Youngsters at schools across Australia not only meet
Sr Julianne but also her Mary MacKillop puppet
Sr Julianne but also her Mary MacKillop puppet
"People from all walks of life and faith have taken her to their hearts," she says.
The next leg of Sr Julianne's journey will take her from Holbrook on to Wagga Wagga and Wyalong then Canberra and Goulburn, Kiama and finally to Sydney on 6 August.
She will spend more than a week visiting schools across the city and then it will be on to Orange, Dubbo, Nyngan, Bourke, Dunedoo, Muswellbrook before heading north.
By September Sr Julianne and her Travelling Roadshow will be in Queensland and a train will take her and the van to Townsville where she'll head west to Mt Isa and outback Australia.
"The Roadshow was set to end in late Ocrtober but there are so many bookings it now looks like we'll still be going throughout most of November," she says.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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