The ways of God
"THE LORD LED ME IN UNEXPECTED AND UNUSUAL WAYS"
Rome, February 16, 1883. It was here that the ways of God, "unexpected and unusual", led Mother Frances. Invited by the founder of the Apostolic Teaching Society Fr. Jordan, this steadfast seeker of God, after due discernment with her spiritual father at the time, left Munich and travelled by train to the Eternal City. Collaborating in the foundation of the female branch of Fr. Jordan's work was to be the first stretch of those unusual paths that she was to tread with audacity throughout her life.
A small flat had been prepared for her at 151 Via Borgo Nuovo.
On the first floor of Borgo Nuovo 151 in Rome, the new work began. The rooms were very basic; the floor was made of bricks. The furniture consisted of a table, three chairs, three beds and basic kitchen utensils.
Only the absolutely necessary night's rest could be found on the straw mattresses. One space was used as a 'simple chapel'. It was truly a house of poverty...
F. A. REICHERT
“The flat rented by Your Reverence is precisely the one intended by Lord”- Mother Frances wrote to thank Fr. Jordan.
As early as March 6, two other young German girls, Barbara Demer and Margaret Eck, joined her and before long others joined the new community.
At Vespers, on March 18, Palm Sunday, Mother Frances put on the poor Franciscan habit, exchanged her shoes and stockings for a pair of sandals, and in the afternoon privately took her vows of chastity, poverty and obedience at the hands of Father Jordan, taking the name Mary Frances of the Cross.