About

Walking the streets with Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop.

Colombians, Hungarians, Australians, Malaysians and East Timorese joined together to travel with Mary MacKillop on the path to World Youth Day, Sydney 2008.

MAGiS 08, a work of the MAGiS Community which is run by Ignation religious orders and lay communities was a program that ran from from 5 July to 20 July 2008. It offered a week of ‘experiments,’ an Ignation Gathering in Sydney and the World Youth Day week of activities. The MAGiS experiments, which took place from 5 – 11 July across Australia and the Asia Pacific challenged people to engage radically with the life of Jesus creatively, through service and pilgrimage, and to challenge oneself and emerge into the world of the experiment.

Walking the streets with Australia’s First Saint, was one such experiment. Where participants journeyed into the life and mission of Blessed Mary MacKillop in order to discover an uniquely Australian path to God. In this experiment participants were immersed in Mary's story, they walked the same sacred ground she once did and carried out ministries in her spirit of hospitality and love which included journeying with the aged at Mary MacKillop Aged Care, visiting with newly arrived migrant families with MacKillop Family Services and performing a play of their own design. In hearing her narrative and participating in her works participants were called upon to respond creatively to her spiritual journey and in so doing bring light to their own search for something more.