Mother Frances Streitel: "Going up to Jerusalem" with Jesus

Amalia Frances Rose Streitel, Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, aka Sister Angela Streitel: In the last few blogs I shared with you Sister Angela’s way of embracing the cross of suffering, of walking with Jesus to “Calvary,” “going up to Jerusalem” with the Lord. Sister Angela, I believe, is a woman who gave 100-150%.  We have heard it said that if a marriage is going to work, both husband and wife need to give their all. Sometimes that “all” is translated into percentages!  Earlier in my religious life, I was taught a prayer that went something like: may I never count the cost.  All of us have mentors who never counted the cost of their discipleship as husband/wife, as members of a religious community, as lay ministers in the Church.  Sister Angela was that kind of woman, I believe. Truly an inspiration.  She says to her Superior General, after taking up her assignment at the Marian Institute:  “Before God I can declare that the occupying of the Marian Institute caused me absolutely no sorrow or pain” (Letter of July 8, 1879) We know from previous blogs, that a lot of pain preceded her and also surrounded her once she assumed full responsibility of bringing order back into a situation that had fallen into ruin.  No easy task for anyone. Resistances abound!  Jealousies rear their heads. Anger surfaces. Sister Angela was a young nun. “Who is this whipper snipper? I’m older than she? Who does she think she is?” are thoughts that could have emerged in the minds of much older religious. Of course, there were others who supported her 100% and were pleased that someone had the courage to “take the bull by the horns,” so to speak.  Sister Angela focused on what she was being asked to do. Her strength came from the Lord, “who made heaven and earth” (Ps 121) and from the fact, I believe,  that she lived a prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:  “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.”