Mother Frances Streitel: Bearing the cross that Jesus bore

Amalia Frances Rose Streitel aka Mother Frances Streitel, Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, and, as a Maria Stern Franciscan, known as Sister Angela.  The pain and suffering that surrounded the Marian Institute assignment was caused not only by Father Beckert but, as indicated earlier, in some way by a Sister Elizabeth. Sister Elizabeth must have written a letter to Mother Salesia, Sister Angela’s Superior General,  that portrayed Sister Angela in a poor light, as indicated in the following statement that Sister Angela wrote in a letter to her on May 7, 1879:  “The things,” Sister Angela says, “that Sister  Elizabeth enumerated make me believe that I have lost your confidence. Oh, God knows how I suffer. I have no other refuge than the Cross. Oh, why are you so hostile toward me, robbing me of all hope of your maternal love?”  How easy it is for human beings to believe things said about another without checking out the truth of those statements!   This tendency to say things about another that later could cause deep emotional pain is a reality of life here in this life. Even Jesus suffered deeply because of untruths told about Him, a classic example of which was when He was accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus met criticism in most  of his activities. When we who are His disciples encounter critics and those who speak ill of us, the pain cuts deeply into the marrow of our bones, as it did for Sister Angela. And sometimes the very people we have begun to trust seem to treat us harshly.