Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community
Mercy Week
Welcome to Mercy Week. I’m pleased to be able to report that for the first time in three years we are preparing for Mercy Day today in beautiful weather and I am not expecting rain or having to consider cancelling. Indeed, we are all thankful. We can proceed with certainty.
New Bronze Relief
Wednesday of Mercy Week is always a highlight for me as we entertain many Sisters who have worked at our College as they come back to join us for lunch. This year was made more special with the unveiling of a bronze wall relief (pictured below) that has been in the planning for over 12 months. Once the idea was formed and the artist selected, Miss Elizabeth Keogh and her then Year 11 Ministry Group worked with the artist, Christine Sage, to ensure the interpretation was unique to our community and, indeed, it is. The plaque next to the relief has the following inscription.
Catherine McAuley graces our entrance, accompanied by two students, the young woman representing the past and the young boy, the present. The young child nestled in Catherine’s dress is a symbol of community, family and trust. The wave below describes the journey of the Mercy Sisters across the seas from Ireland to Australia. It also tells our local story of the Yarra Valley and its rich heritage of viticulture. The vine and its fruits, is a metaphor of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community with Christ at the centre. The eagle, representing Bunjil and the power of the Holy Spirit, stretches its wings across the land as the ancient protector. Our faith tradition is told through the familiar symbols of wheat and vines, reflecting our Eucharistic story.
I am most grateful to all involved, especially the artist, Christine Sage from Hullabaloo Studio in Malmsbury.
Lilydale Cemetery
Wednesday also saw us visit the Lilydale Cemetery where we paid respect and remembered all those Sisters who came before us and worked or lived here in Lilydale. Those great hard-working women travelled from Mansfield and Carrick on Suir in County Tipperary, Ireland, to start a school on a hill in Lilydale. At the time of the laying of the foundation stone for the convent, Mount St Joseph, in November 1896, they stood atop Rourke’s Hill and could see the Valley afar, the Olinda Creek winding amid the farms and the Yarra River flowing past Yarra Glen.
Their task was enormous. It was reported in the local Lilydale paper that the school opened on a Monday with the Rev Fr Hennessy present and the attendance was expected to be high. Rev Mother opened the door and 46 children were present. The next day it was 52, followed by 56. By the following week there were 65 children. Again the local paper reported that in every probability the school would reach the standard of success. Indeed, we have. Over the next 100 years the College grew consistently and with the first intake of boys in 1975 we were on the path to becoming the successful coeducational College that we are all so proud of today.
We are most grateful to the Sisters that lay in peace at the Lilydale Cemetery and thank God for their enormous contribution. Please find below a list of these wonderful women. May they rest in peace.
Plot number:
(1) Bernadette Matthews
(2) Cyril McKendry
(3) Gregory Brazel
(5) Julian Calwell
(6) Monica Taylor
(7) Geradus Nordon
(8) Angela Zanelli
(9) Hilda Warburton
(9) Leo Willis
(10) De Sales Hayes
(10) Vianney Finn
(11) Anthony Starkie
(11) Pauline Kirby
(12) Aidan Connell
(12) Julia Fahey
(13) Sabrina Conway
(13) Bernadette Naughton
(14) Teresa Maher
(14) Ursula Slater
(15) Berchmans Murphy
(16) Clare Coakley
(16) Columba Neville
(17) Martha Hanrahan
(18) Brigid Bradshaw
(19) Patrick Maquire
(20) Veronica Green
(20) Gertrude Power
(21) Magdalen Donnellan
(22) Alacoque O’Shae
(23) Margaret Mary Campbell
(24) Ignatius Duffy
Today, Friday 14 September, we celebrate Mercy Day — although the rest of the world celebrates it on 24 September, which is during our school holidays. To our Year 7 students, I hope you enjoy your first experience of Mercy Day. To our Year 12 students, I hope you enjoy your last Mercy Day as a student. We celebrate Mercy and we celebrate the birth of our great College. We are thankful for and to the Mercy Sisters who are currently working in our College in Sr Anila Isaac rsm and Sr Mary White rsm. They help us understand Mercy every day.
Happy Mercy Day to all.
God bless
Philip Morison
