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Sr Margaret Wall rsj

30/3/2020

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Vale Sr Margaret Wall rsj
29 Apr 1923 – 9 Dec 2019

The time has finally come to do a fuller obituary for her than was possible last December on Instagram. In the interim a good friend acquired a copy of her funeral book for me, and a copy of her official Josephite obituary, because so many locals were unable to attend her Hunters Hill funeral.

The aim is to put them all together into some kind of coherent whole, and to repare for the many times in her life when her presence went unrecorded.
​
This amazing woman was called into eternity on 9 Dec 2019 after a long life.

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​She came into the world on 29 Apr 1923 in Toowoomba QLD, to English-born parents, Harry Wall and Elsie Wall nee Roberts. Her parents came to Australia as post World War I immigrants with her elder sister Dorothy. Then the rest of their children, Bill, our Margaret, Marjorie and Joan were all born in Australia. Her father was a Church of England minister, which may be why they moved from time to time. When Margaret was a teenager they moved to NSW.

Margaret’s initial training was as a nurse. As a young woman in country NSW she decided to become a Catholic at Glenn Innes. This took place in November 1948 at St Patrick’s Glen Innes.

That parish had a convent of Josephite nuns, and one of them in particular, Sr Keiran, introduced Margaret to the life of Mary McKillop, the foundress of the order. Not too long after that the call to follow Jesus as a religious came, and she said Yes, and around 3 years after becoming a Catholic entered the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Her family, especially her father, found this very difficult to comprehend.

In 1955 Margaret made her final vows as a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. It is primarily a teaching order, so after her Profession Margaret needed to retrain to become a teacher. She was assigned as a sub primary teacher, and taught Kindergarten and the lower grades of primary school at various locations, including Penrith, Leichhardt, Lakemba, Rockdale, Lavender Bay, Punchbowl, Guildford, Burwood, Camden and Lidcombe.

Margaret had a keen mind and a life-long love of learning. During 1969-1971 she completed a part-time Diploma of Theology, in 1974 attended the Tiertianship at the Aldgate convent near Adelaide in South Australia, and later did the Emmaus programme at the Baulkham Hills retreat centre and the Crossroads Course in 1990.

For some reason, maybe it was her special affinity with people doing it tough, Margaret transitioned from teaching into social work. She studied for a Diploma in Social Welfare at Milperra College of Advanced Education, and then set up the West Care Pastoral Ministry at St Marys (near Penrith). In this ministry she spent 6 busy and fruitful years, until she was sent to Woy Woy.

Her first visit to Woy Woy parish was a brief one in the 1960s as a teacher in the parish primary school. She returned in 1991 for a much longer stint as a parish associate.

She had her fingers in many pies around the place. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Mary Mac's Place, a ministry to the homeless and disadvantaged through meals and support. She founded the local branch of the Josephite Associates, set up to help non-consecrated-religious share in the charism of St Mary McKillop.

Margaret took part in local University of the Third Age (U3A) activities with gusto.

With her cheery demeanour and her ability to connect with anyone, she accomplished an enormous amount of good, be they homeless, addicted, in pain or of significant influence. Frequently she was called upon to be the way forward when dispute resolution had reached an impasse.

In our two local hospitals she was a familiar sight, taking Holy Communion and her special brand of sunshine to the sick.

Photographs do not do her justice, because they cannot show how she seemed to float or half-waltz her way through life, nor the good humour behind her perennial smiles, and the love which lit up her whole face.
​
She was the last of the Josephite nuns in our parish, moving out of the convent into a villa near the private hospital, enabling the convent to become the parish office until the whole parish site was rebuilt.
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When declining health took hold around 2005 she reluctantly left the parish and went into aged care at Hunters Hill, firstly hostel accommodation and later nursing home, yet keeping up relationships with her Josephite Associates and other parishioners as long as her mental abilities enabled her. This capacity to make and keep loyal friendships was a hallmark of her life, from Josephite Novitiate through all the different places, communities, ministries and parishes in which she lived.

However her time at Hunters Hill wasn’t truly retirement, but the beginning of a new ministry, joining in a local parish prayer group.

Margaret was an independent thinker, bringing the clarity of a convert to Catholicism to some matters of faith which ‘cradle Catholics’ found confusing, and she embraced the Renewal after Vatican II with joy.

She had the blessing of being able to celebrate her golden jubilee of profession in 2005 and her diamond jubilee of profession in 2015.

For her own enjoyment and reflection Margaret wrote poetry and loved the literary word. She was close to all her siblings, in-laws and relatives and held a special love for her nieces and nephews. All her life she held true to a deep faith and confidence in her loving God and in His providence.

Her funeral took place at St Joseph’s Chapel at Hunters Hill on 16 Dec 2019, and afterwards her body was laid to rest in Macquarie Park Cemetery.

May God have mercy upon her soul, and richly reward all her service to Him and His people.
​
We were so blessed to have known her and witnessed her love for God at daily Mass and everywhere else.
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Living in Faith when Public Masses are unavailable

18/3/2020

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In many countries, including Australia, we are now in the extraordinary situation of being without sacraments for the foreseeable future, due to efforts to minimise the effect of the coronavirus.

Being without Mass, sacramental Communion, Confession and the encouragement of worshipping together as a community and catching up with each other is going to be extremely difficult for everyone.

(In some places Confession and Eucharistic Adoration may still be possible, so check with your local diocesan and parish websites.)

These things are gold, but we do have access to silver, since the Church teaches that God answers our desires for these good things. For example you may remember you were taught there were three kinds of baptism, by water, by blood (martyrdom) and by desire.

In a similar way there is sacramental communion and spiritual communion. While there are many good prayers of spiritual communion, and learning at least one of them by heart is recommended, all it really needs is expressing to Jesus that you want to receive sacramental communion, but are unable to, asking Him to come and visit you in your heart spiritually instead.

The PDF below (one A4 page) explains more about spiritual communion:
spiritualcommunionpdf.pdf
File Size: 76 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as already being there, and unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You.

It is also why we were taught that if we find ourselves in danger, a good Act of Contrition is the best thing to do. Again, the Act of Contrition is expressing to God our desire for His pardon and forgiveness, which is in essence a desire for Confession. There are many approved prayers of Acts of Contrition, find one you like best and commit it to memory.

My God, I am sorry for my sins
with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and
failing to do good, I have sinned against You
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance,
to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads
me to sin. Our saviour Jesus Christ suffered
and died for us. In His name, my God,
have mercy. Amen.

Like the prayer of Spiritual Communion, praying an Act of Contrition daily during this extraordinary situation until the churches reopen is a good idea.

Thankfully there are options online for Mass

https://www.ewtn.com/tv/watch-live televises Mass 4 times a day (in Australia currently that means at 3am, 10am, 3pm and 11pm) although for us in Australia it will be the Mass from yesterday, and these times will change by an hour when daylight savings ends on 5 Apr 2020

https://www.youtube.com/user/ShalomWorldWide is where you can access recorded copies of Pope Francis' daily Masses. It is likely to be in Italian and without subtitles, but you should be able to pick up enough words and gestures to follow along.

In Australia on the free-to-air tv Channel 10 at 6am on Sundays there is Mass For You At Home (30 mins), which you can always record and replay at a more convenient time.

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, has promised to live stream their 1.10pm and 5.30pm daily Masses via both their website https://www.stmaryscathedral.org.au/ and their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stmaryscathedralsydney/

And these are only a few of the Mass options available online.

See what your local diocesan website is recommending or offering. For example, on Instagram @frjasonsmith will be live streaming a daily Mass.

Another thing that can be done is to join with the universal Church in praying the Divine Office (morning prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, or as much of it as you can manage).

For those who do not have copies of the prayer books at home to do this, some websites and apps make this possible to do.
https://divineoffice.org/welcome/
(although you will need to send them a request)
https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/liturgy/ scroll all the way down for the link, it will be according to the USA liturgical calendar.

You can order the prayer books online
(for Australia)
https://www.paulinebooks.com.au/search/search.cgi?search=divine+office

If you are new at this choose the Morning and Evening Prayer (black cover) https://www.amazon.com.au/Morning-Evening-Prayer-Not-Available/dp/0007211333
If you have money to burn, get the 3 Volume Divine Office which contains the Office of Readings
If these books look too heavy for you, go for the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer (red cover), which covers everything but doesn't have the richness of the liturgical seasons and saints feast days that the black cover has.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Shorter-Morning-Evening-Prayer-Icel/dp/0007219873

If the Divine Office feels too complicated for you, then there is something similar at http://disabilityandjesus.org.uk/ called An Ordinary Office http://anordinaryoffice.org.uk/ specifically designed for people with disabilities who cannot access church buildings. If you have a Twitter account you can pray it via @DisabilityJ

All of these prayer options can keep us plugged into the prayer life of the universal church, and in unity.
………………………
There are lots of your friends who need this information,
so please share it around.

In all this we remind ourselves that God is in control. If He has permitted us to go through this dearth of the sacraments, then it is only so that He can bring a much greater good out of it. We can look upon this time as an opportunity to deepen our faith and to deepen our desire for Jesus. The more we do this, the shorter the time of trial will be, since we believe that Jesus longs for sacramental contact with us much, much more than we long for sacramental contact with Him. Pray for your priests, that this time is transformative for the better for them too. If nothing else, we will never take the sacraments for granted again!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us
St Joseph, terror of demons, pray for us
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Putting the Catholic into Catholic tertiary institutions

9/3/2020

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​Ten years ago, as part of our home schooling adventures, we used some Excellence in Writing material, and I put together this essay for practice. I came across a copy of it recently, and it seems to be as relevant as ever.
............................................................................................
Q. What role do you think the Catholic Faith should play in the academic and community life of a Catholic College?
 
A Catholic college should be Catholic all through, in all its academic and communal parts, and not Catholic in name only. In recent times we have seen far too many Catholic institutions that are Catholic in name only or ‘Catholic-lite’ and we have not had the opportunity to see the real thing.
 
Academic
A Catholic College cannot witness to Catholic truth unless each of its administrators, lecturers and tutors witness to that truth not only with their words and their works but most importantly in the conduct of their lives. Such visible leaders must be publicly committed to presenting what the Catholic Church teaches and to never present ideas contrary to the Magisterium of the Church. One cannot protect these truths without appropriate safeguards and sanctions. It should be understood that divorce, adultery, abortion, drunkenness, addictions, active homosexuality and similar actions are grounds for instant dismissal. Each lecture hall and tutorial room should have recording apparatus installed, and have lectures and tutorials taped randomly and checked for doctrinal errors. When errors are found they are to be rectified swiftly. Every effort should be expended to ensure that the witness given by word and deed is authentically Catholic.
 
A Catholic College should equip its students not only with secular learning of the highest quality but also with sound doctrinal teaching. Students need to know how well founded the truths that the Catholic Church teaches are (Luke 1: 4), and how to defend them. Each year a subject in apologetics and in theology needs to be mandatory for every student, staffed by the most interesting, zealous and knowledgeable people possible.

To be an effective Catholic witness in today’s world one’s knowledge of Catholic truth cannot remain at primary school or high school level, it needs to be at university level. Students need to experience that the pursuit of Catholic truth is as essential as the pursuit of knowledge in the arenas of law, medicine, education, engineering, science and anthropology.  
 
Within the secular subjects provided by the College, a sense of wonder and awe at the work of the Creator and respect for God’s laws, natural and revealed, must be inculcated. Each subject’s content must exhibit fidelity to the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church, and lead naturally to greater knowledge, love and respect for God. The work of a Catholic college should pulse with the plea ‘Show us Your ways, help us to understand Your truths, reveal more of Your wisdom, plan and knowledge to us’. In all there should be recognition that it is because God works in beauty and order that we can study His works in the various secular and religious subjects and thus come to greater knowledge and love of Him.
 
Community Life
A Catholic College should provide the environment for students to learn about living a thoroughly Catholic lifestyle. An array of options for growth in spiritual life and in social life should be offered.
 
For the development of spiritual life the provision of several daily Mass times is necessary, as well as the provision of several daily times for the reception of the Sacrament of Penance. There should be two chapels open 24 hours a day, one for women and one for men. At each chapel two religious staff would be at hand at all times for counselling, one to listen and one as a witness to prevent scandal. The Liturgy of the Hours should be prayed in common in as many locations as possible, and every kind of prayer group, Marian, Divine Mercy, Charismatic, Bible Study etc encouraged.
 
At the heart of community life there should be the witness and continuity provided by religious orders. The members of these orders, one for men, one for women, would provide the counsellors in the chapels, and as many administrators, lecturers, tutors and dormitory supervisors as possible. The witness and fidelity of those who have chosen a lifelong commitment to God is essential for providing a stable Catholic environment and culture upon which the ever changing cohorts of students can find nourishment and challenge.

Life is not all study and prayer, recreation and fun are important. Catholic Colleges need to provide safe and fun options for social interactions. Sport, drama clubs, Christian music concerts, Christian art exhibitions, talks from prominent Catholic lay visitors are all needed. Quality outreach options for those called to evangelism and those called to works of mercy (soup kitchens, hospital and prison visitation etc) should be available. Weekly sharing groups to assist students connect with each other, and look out for each others needs are essential, as it is so easy to feel lost and isolated in a large institution. The lessons learned in social interaction are just as formative as those learned in class time and study time.
 
A Catholic College to be worthy of the name has to be Catholic in its leaders, in its prayer life, in its social life and in its pursuit of truth. To obtain such a College requires great commitment and continual vigilance.
​
It is possible to attain the real thing, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, USA has done it, and has done it so well that it has a glowing international reputation. A Catholic College should never settle for being anything less than the real thing.  
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