Mother Frances Streitel: Zealousness not appreciated

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. As administrator and local superior of the girls’ school of languages and needlework in Altomuenster, Sister Angela also gave music lessons, thus sharing her talent as a musician with some of the girls. Less than a year after this 1871 assignment, she was reassigned to a more demanding mission, St. Elizabeth’s Home for Orphans in Wuerzburg. Sister Angela had hardly four year’s experience in the missions at this point and less experience in administration and as local superior.  She is only 28 year of age and still very zealous in her practice of the disciplines of religious life.  She is passionate about serving the Lord wholeheartedly and wanted the Sisters and the orphans to be as zealous as she was.  However, her zeal and her ideals were not always appreciated by others and clashes occurred. Relationships became strained.  Think of a time when you, too, were not well received by others and your desire for perfection and high ideals were not shared by others—whether you are married, single or aspiring to religious life. In short, people just do not seem to understand you.