I wanted to go - there was so much talk of it, you just knew it was going to be such
an amazing event. I didn't really actually have the courage, Tamara, to ask Matt. And
we had three children at school; paying school fees; kind of living off the smell of an oily
rag - I thought it wasn't fair to ask him if we could go to the canonisation. And he asked me.
So he bought our tickets - the three children and the two of us using frequent flyer points.
I was in Year 8 at the time, and they asked would you like to go to the canonisation?
And I hate to say it, but I was actually kind of going, "Yes! Free trip to Europe!"
At the time we went to the canonisation we were recently married, I was still struggling
to come to grips with having a wife and a mortgage, and how to make ends meet.
Well we were very fortunate to be able to go to the canonisation. Something happened preceding
that was my wife's best friend actually passed away from cancer in 2001. And she actually gave
my wife part of her legacy. Because we were just a young family; we had three young children;
financially it would have been very difficult. But then this actually happened and I guess we saw it
as a bit of a sign that God wanted us to go. I guess it's one of these things you think
about for a while - think this is an event you know you'll always regret missing if you had
a chance to go. So I kind of made up my mind I was going to find a way to get there, so I did.
We would have loved to take our whole family and be there at the canonisation but it was not
possible to do so at that time. And when we heard that the school was sending a group of students,
my husband suggested to me that we should send our eldest daughter,
who was barely 14 at the time I think. When you go to Rome and there's this
mass of people, in the way that you would see a massive crowd for a sporting event or a big
celebrity, just seeing sort of how the pope was treated - almost like not as an old man but as
a almost like a rock star that everyone wants to be next to, gave me that impression that the faith
was well and truly alive in the world. There was, I think 300 000 people,
they said was there. And you saw so many people from so many walks of life. And we were right
next to this Spanish group and I remember they pulled out their guitars and they were singing
these beautiful songs to Our Lady. I couldn't speak a word of Spanish but you knew the hymns,
you knew the songs, you're like "Oh I know that song!" So everyone around was joining in. So it's
this beautiful kind of collective worship to Our Lady. Our spot was right below the papal
apartments where the pope was. Someone opened up the windows - you could see the veil of the
curtains blowing and we all started going crazy. We're going in a "Viva il Papa!" It's a very small
moment, but for me I kind of went, "This is so incredible, this is what the church is about."
All I could remember is there are so many people and they're all happy.
Everything is peaceful and friendly whether you know them or not, you know. And I said it must be
like heaven on earth! That's how I felt anyway. After the canonisation we went to the Piazza
Navona. You're sitting there in the piazza and everybody having a bite to eat and a glass of
wine and the kids playing in the fountains. And it was then that there was a photograph taken. The
mum that took the photograph said to her husband you know, "Oh, wouldn't they make a lovely couple
one day - those children?" about a couple of the kids in the photo. And one was my daughter and
one was her son. Lo and behold you know 17 years later they both got married. And I did bring their
wedding book - this is Billy and Tom and this is Tom's sister Lauren who's now in heaven. And these
two - they got married 17 years later on the 6th of October, so the same date as the canonisation.
A canonisation is where the church publicly recognises the sanctity of an individual.
We're human beings right, we need to be able to understand things, and most of our understanding
you know comes through our senses right? So I think to have examples like St Josemaria or any
of the other saints put in front of you, where the church firstly we know goes to a lot of trouble
to you know investigate people's lives and make sure that they meet the requirements so to speak.
After an exhaustive study of their life, what they've done, their virtues set, sort of the
church being able to stamp its moral authority, saying "we believe that this person is in heaven."
The saints, also, because the church is telling us that they are there in heaven,
then become intercessors for us. The previous year in 2001 my husband
fell seriously ill and he was in hospital, and there were times when things didn't look good
for him at all. But thanks to the prayers of many people here in Australia and all
over the world, who said the prayer card to the then blessed Josemaria,
we implored him to intercede and my husband recovered completely.
I guess another question
might be - why would we canonise people? Most importantly to give us all the example.
So to be able to see that actually these people did struggle and did live a very holy life. And
you know St Josemaria is one of a great multitude of saints which provides us examples from all eras
of time, of how to live a good and holy life. It's like a seal of approval that whatever God
has revealed to him or her, that we could confidently follow that path.
And St Josemaria was quite clear on this - he wasn't inventing anything;
he received what he saw as Opus Dei from God, and then spent his life trying to put
it into practice. And so it gives us great confidence if we're trying to live according
to that teaching, that it is something that's valid and that's come from God.
So the truth is that anyone can become a saint. A great theologian can do that,
a priest or a religious can do that, and an ordinary person can do that by living the
details of their ordinary life with great virtue and struggling to be the best that they can.
Holiness is for everyone. Everyone is called to be holy. To sanctify our work,
to sanctify ourselves in it, and to sanctify others through it,
came to us now from a modern-day saint.
I think until the time that I'd come in contact with Opus Dei, and started
to understand the teachings of St Josemaria, I really hadn't understood how a professional life,
and working hard, and some of these things that were starting to come together in my life,
could form part of my spiritual life and actually be my pathway to heaven,
as opposed to an obstacle to my spiritual life.