Mother Frances Streitel: Bitterness transformed into holiness

Amalia Frances Rose Streitel, Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, aka Sister Angela Streitel.  As a Maria Stern Franciscan, Sister Angela's last assignment before answering God's call to enter Carmel was at the Marian Institute.  Within a few months of assuming her administrative responsibilities, Sister Angela  put that mission on solid financial footing and transformed its domestic woes, as well. Her efforts to bring the Sisters to embrace radical poverty as lived by St. Francis of Assisi, however, caused much suffering for herself and for some of the Sisters.  She took her suffering to the foot of the cross. There in prayer, as she was complaining bitterly of "condemned without a hearing," she says to herself: "Enough of this."    She resolved not to allow bitterness to lodge in her heart and united her pain with Jesus' sufferings on the cross in reparation for her own sinfulness.  In no way was Sister Angela going to allow bitterness and anger to block her openness to God.  How have you dealt with anger and bitterness in your life?(Walk in Love,  p. 29).