Begotten of God

The first reading for today’s liturgy begins with the statement: “If you consider that God is righteous [good, just, truth and love], you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness [goodness, holiness, justice, and truth] is begotten by…[God].”  If I am begotten of God, I originate from God. If my choices flow out of justice, goodness, righteousness, holiness, truth and/or love, they originate from the Holy Spirit working within and through me.  If my works are of God, I, too, am of God. Christ came into the world in obedience to the Father to take sin away, to destroy sin, so that we are no longer its slaves but free to act through the Spirit.  Sin in the world and sin in human nature has been nailed to the cross. Anyone who believes and looks upon the cross of Christ for mercy each day and each moment, especially when tempted by Satan, will know Christ as Christ knows him/her and is set free to reject Satan by the One who knew no sin.  Christ triumphed over sin through His death and resurrection  in obedience to the Father’s will  and so, too, will you and I in Christ Jesus, who, as St. John tells us in today’s Gospel,  baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. That is my hope. What is yours?

Mother Frances Streitel: Dealing with human weakness

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.  Concerning the details of what occurred prior to Sister Angela’s actual assignment to take on the administrative position at the Marian Institute, more light is shed upon the situation in a letter she wrote to her superior general on May 6, 1879.  She writes: “A lady has just come to me, sent by the Reverend Pastor Beckert, to tell me you [Rev. Mother] had written him that I had been stirred up by a woman, in regard to the directress [administrator] of the Institute. Dear Venerable Mother, out of delicacy of feeling toward you, I wrote nothing of the art and manner in which Father Beckert has harmed the interests of the religious from the very beginning, but now I shall be frank. A man came to me and informed me as a friend that Father Beckert had come to him and had said: ‘Mr. N., I am in a nice predicament. I have requested religious [namely, Sister Angela] and have accepted an elementary lay teacher in the Society and bade her open the Institute. If only she would find a husband! See to it!’ Literally true.” This sounds like someone trying to cover his tracks through manipulative maneuverings!  Imagine the consequences of these behaviors!  How disillusioned Sister Angela, a young sister, only 35 years of age and only professed 11 years, may have been.  Think of times when you felt disillusioned by persons in your professions or your mentors and/or persons who you admired.  How did you handle these experiences of disillusionment?