Mother Frances Streitel: Conflict with her parents, becoming one's own person

Amalia Frances Rose Streitel aka Mother Frances Streitel, Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother—Following the hiding-in-the-attic incident when Amalia’s parents threw a “coming out” party for their 21-year-old daughter to meet her future husband, Amalia’s parents came to the realization that their daughter’s call to consecrate her life to the Lord was not an adolescent whim that she thought up at the age of 17.  Developing independence from one’s parents—becoming one’s own person--while simultaneously respecting and honoring one’s parents is a challenging developmental task and can, at times, lead to tremendous conflicts. We don’t know exactly how Amalia handled the four years of her parents’ opposition to her vocational choice but we do know that prayer was important to her and that she lived a reflective life. So we can guess that she probably took her concerns to the Lord and confided her feelings to Him, thus drawing closer to the Lord during those tumultuous years.