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** SEE FULL LYRICS BELOW**
The lyrics for 'There Is a Quiet' come from the first five verses of 'An Icon for Australia', a poem written by Patricia Mary White RSJ. I received the poem from Pat when visiting Penola, South Australia in the early 1990s. I was impressed by the quality and sweep of her words. Later, I was glad to receive her approval for my musical setting and her permission to publish. Pat has since passed away.
The first verse evokes the geology of the land around Penola, where Mary started her first school in a converted stable. Mary’s friend, Fr. Julian Tenison-Woods (co-founder with her of the Josephite order), was an amateur scientist with a keen interest in geology. Later verses describe Mary MacKillop’s ‘calling’ and the pioneering years of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
I recorded ‘There Is a Quiet’ in 2007 for inclusion on my CD 'A GIFT of SONG'.
lyrics
THERE IS A QUIET
(Mary MacKillop – Icon for Australia)
A mystic land whose uneventful plains
Conceal a secret world
of eerie caves, and running streams,
Of floating isles and crater lakes
In whose once fiery depths,
some slumberous giant dreams.
There is a quiet living presence here.
A sense that God is near.
A woman came, her heart in tune to God,
Ah but poverty was here. She knew its power
To grind from hearts the joy of life,
To drive all myth and mystery from the soul,
To silence God's glad song.
She yearned to lift those souls to self-esteem
To rouse that song again.
From Penola called Father Tenison-Woods -
He said: "The children wait, the lambs are not being fed."
So Mary came with an empty purse and a generous heart
Her only wish to give her life to God.
She made a school from a stable.
Self-giving soon brought others to her side
And the family of Josephites was born.
Brown clad they came, women of the soil,
Free they were from convention's crippling bonds.
They moved around like the spirit of the Great South Land
Ready to brave its dust and heat and drought,
To live the people's lives,
To follow to Australia's farthest shore all her isolated poor.
Misunderstandings, persecution, shame -
These fashioned the cross that Mary's shoulders bore.
She knew them well. In every trial, serene and brave,
Loving the hand from which each suffering came.
God's will was all she sought,
And dark though the path she knew she'd tread
God's love was light enough, she said.
A mystic land whose uneventful plains
Conceal a secret world of eerie caves,
And running streams, of floating isles and crater lakes
In whose once fiery depths
some slumberous giant dreams.
There is a quiet living presence here
A sense that God is near.
There is a quiet living presence here.
There is a quiet.
Words: Patricia Mary White RSJ
Music: Peter Kearney
Peter Kearney is an Australian songwriter and singer. His early folk-hymns 'Fill My House' & 'The Beatitudes' are
internationally known. He has written many other songs of justice and peace, songs for children, and a musical-narrative on St. Francis of Assisi. His published recordings include 153 original songs.
LINKS BELOW are for Peter's:
- Website
- Online store
- Facebook Artist Page....more
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