Description
The book One door Closes Another Opens: Mary MacKillop in New South Wales 1880-1909 was written in response to a request from the members of the former New South Wales Mary MacKillop Committee. Their early research became the basis for this book which aims to explore the life and ministry of Mary MacKillop as it related to New South Wales in the years after 1880.
Several themes run through the book: Mary’s acceptance of the will of God in all the vicissitudes of those momentous years; her love and compassion for the sisters in the growing Congregation; her ceaseless travels which brought her into contact with the sisters in their schools and social works and with many bishops, priests and people; her prolific letter-writing as she responded to every letter from her sisters and other correspondents. No person was left unnoticed, from the little barefoot children she saw in the classrooms, to the many dignitaries she met in her day to day life. The book attempts to give a faint glimpse of the vision and work of the woman we now proclaim as St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Bernadette O’Sullivan rsj is a member of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She was born in Gerringong NSW and was educated by the Sisters of St Joseph at St Patrick’s School, Berry. She holds a B.A. and a B.Ec. from the University of New England and a M.Stud.Ed from the University of Wollongong. She served in education for many years and has held administrative positions in her Congregation. In her later years she has devoted many hours researching the life and work of Mary MacKillop and the history of the convents founded in New South Wales in the period 1880-1909.
