Our Lady of the Southern Cross by Andrew Chinn (Mary, Australia and New Zealand, Mary MacKillop)
Written in 2012 with the community of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Dalby, QLD, this song now has a lyric video! Useful in the weeks ahead as we celebrate the life of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and then the Feast of the Assumption.
We are so fortunate in the Southern Hemisphere to have the Southern Cross constellation above us in the night sky all year round. It features on the flags of Australia and New Zealand and can be used as a constant reference to our Christianity.
Mary has many beautiful titles: Our Lady Help of Christians, Our Lady of the Angels, Our Lady Star of the Sea, but as an Australian Our Lady of the Southern Cross is my favourite. The song was written with the staff and students of Our Lady of the Southern Cross College in Dalby, in rural Queensland. Every prayer of staff and students finishes with the leader saying “Our Lady of the Southern Cross” and everyone responds with “Be Our Guide”.
As a young person converting to Catholicism I received great instruction from Fr Bob Hayes. Fr Bob explained that Mary is not prayed to, but rather as a saint we ask her to pray on our behalf. Above all, he said, Mary is the best of Christian examples, showing us the way, through her life of selflessness and commitment to the will of God, to Jesus and God. In ancient times travellers used the stars to find the way, so there’s a poetic link to Mary, through the Southern Cross and patronage of our Southern Lands, showing the way. Each verse calls on us to follow the Christian example of Mary and others, such as St Mary MacKillop, who set an example and showed the way in Australia and New Zealand.
A song for any Marian Feast “Down Under” and for any study of Mary as one who showed the way to God and to Jesus.
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