The vision of the two mountains
WHAT DID SHE 'SEE' IN HER SOUL?
During her novitiate at the Carmel Himmelspforten in Würzburg in June 1882, while praying in the choir of the monastery before the image of the Sacred Heart, Mother Frances heard these words: "You will make your vow in the hands of the Bishop". Unthinkable for a Carmelite! - She commented to herself, knowing well that Saint Teresa of Avila "wanted the vows to be given simply into the hands of the prioress". Prompted by this unusual inner utterance, she asked the Lord, "Why did you call me to Carmel?” The answer came immediately, "To unite the active life to the contemplative one".
But how could this be accomplished? A few days later, in prayer, she had a most singular vision. She confided this with extreme modesty, almost shame, to her spiritual director,"I was pushed by a supernatural force, ... I had an illumination, ... in my soul I saw, ... before my spirit I saw".
WHAT DID SHE 'SEE' IN HER SOUL?
Here were two mountains, lined up, one higher than the other, rising up before his spirit. On the higher one, in which she recognized Carmel, stood the prophet Elijah and St.Teresa of Avila; on the lower one, which she identified as La Verna, she saw St. Francis with a cross in his hands. Both mountains curved up to form an arch and it seemed to her that St.Teresa and St. Francis wanted to draw her towards the center. She was extremely troubled by this, fearing that she was "the victim of an infernal game". Reassured by her father confessor, she finally understood clearly that the vision was an answer to the many questions she carried in her heart. Carmel represented contemplation and Alverno represented apostolic activity. The forming of the arch and the perception of being drawn there was a vivid image of the task that awaited her. As if to say, it is your mission to unite the active and contemplative life through a new foundation that bears witness to the sublimity of prayer and the necessity of work--as "parallel lines in order to contribute in the same measure to the elimination of the spiritual and social misery of humanity".
“I was praying in the choir
in the forenoon and saw something,
to me very strange.
In spirit I beheld two mountains rise...”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read the booklet: The peaks of charity. The vision of the two mountains of Mother Frances Streitel, edited by the SSM General Archive.
With joy and gratitude I present this booklet that accompanies the icon of the "The Summit of Charity - Vision of the Two Mountains of Venerable Mother Frances Streitel", Foundress of our Congregation . . . To every person who views this icon, I hope they will be able to contemplate the beauty of God's gift to the Church through the life and works of Venerable Mother Frances. Her holy and humble life, became a gift and a mystery, a welcoming home of God's will and an exemplary testimony of Gospel fidelity.
Rome, 2020
Sr. Catherine Marie Hanegan
General Superior, SSM