Opinion Articles

SOUL MATTERS: Reflecting on intrepid spirit in education
By Carmel Murphy

Within Catholicism there is a tradition of religious orders, each with their own charism. Several weeks ago, Vocations Week was set aside by the church to “promote” different orders and to attract people to a particular way of living their spirituality. The numbers of young people entering the religious life in Australia is diminishing and I was interested to see how different ‘recruitment campaigns' would attempt to appeal. I was quite surprised to see the Dominican promotion of the order: sandals and a travel bag in black and white. The bag had a cross in the Dominican style and a name tag with “joy” on it. How could this be seen as religious, you may wonder.

Today marks the 140 th anniversary of a rather remarkable event in education in Australia . In 1867 a group of young women, Dominican Sisters, left Ireland and their loved ones to answer a call for assistance in setting up Catholic schools from the Bishop of the (then) Maitland Diocese, stretching to the Queensland border. All this before education was compulsory in NSW…

What inspired them to travel to the other side of the world on a long and arduous sea voyage to a country of different customs, different climate, different accents, different food? Why would young women do that? Part of the answer lies in the journal that was kept on the voyage. The title “Up she gets for up she must” is a phrase that every woman in the world would be able to identify with, because women do what has to be done. The light hearted courage of the title understates the huge challenges these young women faced. The sense of adventure is evident, as is the sense of a purposeful confidence in the future. Most importantly these young women came to this country because they wanted to Praise, to Bless , and to Preach in their Dominican tradition.

Through their integrity, faith and connectedness to the ordinary people of the Catholic Church, these Dominican Sisters have had a remarkable impact on the church and have educated countless students, some of whom have become teachers of teachers.

The travel bag, the sandals and the joy make a lot of sense as a ‘logo' for the Dominicans.

St Mary's High School in Maitland was founded by the Dominicans and celebrates its 140 th birthday today. It is a place where over 700 students and teachers daily build on the fruits of the richness of the Dominican tradition. Last Saturday, over 50 past and present staff met for a lively dinner at Monte Pio in Maitland where guests included Sisters who taught at the school in the 1950s. Yesterday hundreds of ex-students and friends of the Dominican sisters gathered at St Mary's and the Town Hall in Maitland to celebrate 140 years of joy filled spirituality in education.

Carmel Murphy
Carmel is a former student of St Mary's and now teaches there.