Mother Frances Streitel: "God is preparing me for something"

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.  When Sister Angela returned to serving the Lord according to strict religious principles and got permission from her superiors to request the same from the sisters over whom she was superior, some of the Sisters followed her example and held her in high esteem while others felt disdain for her and denounced her to her superiors as going too far and abusing her authority (See Walk in Love, p. 21). We may be scandalized that fellow sisters would behave in this way. However, human nature--with its tendencies toward jealousy and envy, resistance to change, and rejecting someone who confronts their behavior and/or excels them in living the ideals of one’s state in life-- does not cherish correction. In any state of life, in any job (ministry as we in religious life refer to our jobs), in any relationship, we humans will encounter the best and the worst in human nature, our own and that of others. No one goes through life without these experiences. It is what we do with them that matters. Sister Angela went to the Lord, stood beneath the cross of Jesus pouring out her anguish, complaining to the Lord when she realizes that God uses all of the circumstances of our lives to make us stronger, to open our hearts to grace, and to transform us into a vessel wherein His will is accomplished. She says: “….I could make reparation for my sins and was firmly convinced thereby that God wanted to prepare me for a task that was as yet undisclosed to me” (Walk in Love,  p. 22).  The question for all of us is: what do I do when I encounter the worst in another and in myself?