The years of trial
PERSECUTION, A "BETTER GUARANTEE"
Year 1895. Mother Frances continued to be the 'firm guide and tender mother' of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Her feverish race seemed unstoppable, from one side of the world to the other. Fixed in spirit at the cross with Mother of Sorrows, an authentic contemplative, and at the same time always on the road, she traveled from one House to another to visit and watch over, promote and define the projects of charity. It seemed to consume itself without ever going out: a great mystery, which eluded all realistic predictions and far exceeded the most concrete possibilities. Yet it was not all accomplished. In order to test with fire the heart of this holy woman and test the goodness of God's Work, there needed to be a kind of seal, a guarantee, as she said. And the guarantee was persecution, suffering, the cross:
"I can think of no better surety for the work of God than persecution, the more so because it is the least and should always appear as the least. The more, the sure, I said in anticipation of the new Cause, the more suffering and crosses, the better will be the foundation."
PERSECUTION, SUFFERING AND THE CROSS
Testing the heart and testing the work, almost like the pressing of grapes and the milling of grain, will be for Mother Frances like entering stripped of everything into the artisan forge of a renewed fidelity to God.
The year 1896: The combative woman agreed to become the helpless and silent target of fierce persecution. Unjustly accused and deposed from the leadership of the Congregation, she meekly set out toward an exile that became the thalamus and altar of the ultimate sacrifice, for God, for the Church, for the Congregation, and for the poor whom she loved and treasured like precious jewels.
THE TREE BENT BY PAIN
The tree is bent by the wind of pain and persecution, the multicolored beauty of life seems to be reduced to the only possible hue: the cold tone of loneliness. But its roots are deep. There is no adversity that can eradicate faith, dry up hope, cut off love. With Our Mother of Sorrows, she entered into the solitude of "her hour" and faced humiliation with dignity, without ever complaining: "Let us leave things as they are! It's all right, God has allowed it," she would say, cutting short to put out the fire of contentions.
Now, in the years of trial, she understood that there was nothing left to do but bring to completion what God had begun. And the way seemed to be traced from the mountain of her youthful vision, to the summit of the purest contemplation. Unceasing adoration and continuous intercession will be the final, decisive ministry that Mother Frances will exercise as a burning lamp before the Tabernacle. Alone, with God alone. But still among the poor and the sisters to intercede. Humble and hidden. Still and always MOTHER!