Mary Helen MacKillop (1842-1909), known in life as Mother Mary of the Cross, was born on 15 January 1842 in Fitzroy, Melbourne, the eldest of eight children of Alexander McKillop and his wife Flora, née McDonald. Her parents had migrated from the Lochaber area in Inverness-shire and married soon after they reached Melbourne. From a young age Mary was expected to earn a living and bring a portion of income into the family home, by working as a governess, as a clerk . Her family were taught by Mary's dad. Although he wasn't a teacher he had studied priesthood, therefore it had a strong influence on many of her beliefs growing up. In 1863 Mary had the opportunity to become a teacher at Portland catholic denominational school where she believed that she was walking in Jesus' footsteps and could make a difference in children's lives. After teaching and supporting the less fortunate for around three years Mary started her own small school called the Stable School. With the help from Father Julian Edmund, Mary began to fulfill her dream of providing catholic education for children in remote, isolated areas. After a few months the stable that they rented to school the children in was deemed unsuitable for a permanent school, so Father Edmund commissioned the building of a new school-room near the catholic church in Portland street, Penola. After the sisters and children left the rented stable to go to the new schoolhouse the stable was destroyed.  After they moved Mary had to deal with many challenges involving money for the school, supplies in class, water and even the death of her father on the 19th December 1868. Mary Mackillop continued following in the footsteps of Jesus and helping the poor by deciding to open some Orphanages and Providences to care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life. Mary Mackillop was an inspiration to many people around Australia and lived her life by giving to others. She died in August 8, 1909, North Sydney, New south wales and was canonized October 17, 2010. She became the first and patron saint of Australia and through Mary's dedication to God and Jesus her work reminds us to ‘never see a need without doing something about it’ and to trust in God's love and compassion to care for those in need.

Mary yearned to ensure that poor children and women were offered the opportunity to gain an education and thus the ability to create a better life. 
She worked tirelessly to make a difference, to uphold the dignity of the most marginalised, dejected and deprived. This encyclical may have had an important role in helping inform Mary just how important her work was and that she was truly living in the footsteps of Jesus and God.

 

In the time of Jesus Christ people believed that the work of god was present in everyday life good events and bad events included. There was no sense of the scientific principles that we understand today. Therefore miracles were an indication of gods power and actions.  

 

 World of the text: 

In the gospel of mark the crowd of people is said to be like a sheep without  Shepard, it is said that Jesus has compassion upon them and so begins teaching them. This technique of comparing Jesus to a Shepard and the crowd to his flock indicates that while this miracle was taking place the purpose was to ultimately learn about the power and compassion of god which was demonstrated through Jesus. 

 World in front of the text: 

Like many of Jesus' healing miracles stories the feeding of the 5000 was intended to demonstrate God's compassion for human beings and the responds to people in need. This gospel suggest that you should always have trust in god and that he will assist you when its needed. I feel this gospel story also is sending a message that you may only have a little but with using what you have well and smart that you can do anything like feed 5000 people with little as 5 loafs of bread and two fish. This gospel is making you think about the problem, action and reaction of the text also along with the internal and external changes,. The external changes I feel are that we was able to feed 5000 people with only 5 loafs of bread and 2 fish and the internal changes would be that Jesus made everyone good and less hungry. The problem of this gospel is that 5000 people show up and Jesus has to mange to feed 50000 of them with only 5 loafs of bread and 2 fish. The action is that Jesus somehow is able to feed all of the people with small meals. The reaction from the people and the disciples is that they are confused because they don’t understand how that low number of food could feed a large crowd and they are glad that everyone will have gotten food. Mary Mackillop and Jesus before him had a vision for a mission. Though she , as those before her, came across multiply barriers to achieve their mission, she continue to on her journey and today we enjoy the legacy that she had left for us. This stories reflects Mary's life as she didn’t have access to many goods, she made do with what she had , made sure she shared as much as see could with others and always continued to believe in god.