The Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop is celebrated across Australia on 8 August with joy and gratitude. This humble, hardworking, resilient and faith-filled woman of God stood with Christ in serving the poor and is loved and admired by Australians of all faiths and backgrounds. St Mary of the Cross had the courage to open her heart to the needs she saw around her in her own time in practical and down-to-earth ways. Her legacy lives on, inspiring people today to also ‘never see a need without doing something about it’.
RICH AND VARIED
Music for this Feast is rich and varied, with Australian composers taking the lead in celebrating Australia’s first recognised saint. Music that would work well in both Masses and prayer services includes a version of the well-known tune of Thaxted that has been adapted by Br Michael Herry FMS in his Songs of the Pilgrim collection for the hymn ‘From Penola’s Plains’.
This makes a stirring entrance or sending forth hymn. Michael’s ‘As Mary Did’ could also be used at the Procession of the Gifts. These two hymns are available for free digital download from Marist Music in Australia.
Another free hymn resource is available from Liturgy Brisbane and features a text written by Archbishop Mark Coleridge called Daughter of Australia. St Mary of the Cross is the patron of the Archdiocese of Brisbane. ‘If I Could Tell the Love of God’ by Chris Willcock SJ is also a beautiful hymn for this Feast and can be found in Australia’s Catholic Worship Book ll (436).
A newer hymn called ‘The Feast Meant for Everyone’, by Tom Booth and Sarah Hart from the US, picks up on the universal spirit of love and inclusion lived by St Mary of the Cross and would work well for Communion. It is available for digital download from OCP.
FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS
Andrew Chinn’s ‘A Cross of Stars’ is a hymn that would work especially well for primary school aged children and is available from Butterfly Music. Music for prayer services for the Feast could also include ‘St Mary MacKillop, We Sing Praise’ and the ‘St Mary of the Cross Litany’ from Australia’s Monica Brown. The music for these songs can be back-ordered from the Sisters of St Joseph online store.
Closely following the Feast of St Mary of the Cross is the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August. Most communities already have a store of Marian hymns for this Feast, so adding one new selection to the music already prayed confidently would allow some variation while keeping the favourites people love and sing well. Settings of the ‘Magnificat’ are welcome for this Feast, and two that allow for simplicity or added complexity come from the Taize community and singer/songwriter Steve Angrisano. Both pieces would be great additions to an already rich musical repertoire for this wonderful Feast.
Fiona Dyball works across parish, school and tertiary settings in Melbourne as a musician and liturgist, and serves on the national executive of the Australian Pastoral Musician’s Network.
MUSIC WEBSITES
Feast of St Mary MacKillop
‘From Penola’s Plains’ and ‘As Mary Did’
by Br Michael Herry FMS. Free music download from Marist Music
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-pOVndZasA&t=2s
‘Daughter of Australia’
Tune: Traditional Irish; text: Archbishop Mark Coleridge
Free music download from Liturgy Brisbane
‘The Feast Meant for Everyone’
by Tom Booth and Sarah Hart
OCP
‘St Mary MacKillop We Sing Praise’ and ‘St Mary of the Cross Litany’
by Monica Brown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7oYLNFfvsQ
Order
‘A Cross of Stars’
by Andrew Chinn
Contact Butterfly Music
Feast of the Assumption
Taize ‘Magnificat’
GIA
‘Magnificat’by Steve Angrisano
OCP