Sunday, October 12, 2008 Oblate Gathering

After Praise, Mass and a wonderful Brunch [we left a seat at each table for a sister to join us], the Oblates affiliated with St. Gertrude Monastery in Ridgely, MD gathered in the community room for their second meeting of the 2008/2009 session.

Sister Roni lit a candle as we listened to “listen, the voice of your God is calling…come to me all who are burdened and weary, come to me as you are and I shall tend to you…and I shall give you rest.” quietly played in the background to bring us all into God’s presence.  We experienced another wonderful beginning.  Sister Roni noted that the past weeks have been difficult with all the hard times in our families and in our economy.  She asked us to set these trials aside for today and take time to rejuvenate.

The gospel, the rule our lifestyle and our church calls us to obedience.  Let us concentrate on holy obedience to listen with the ear of the heart.  We also have an obedience to ourselves, to our body.  Sometimes we forget to look into ourselves and see what gifts we have and how our gifts might interfere with our community, our family, the primary call.  Sometimes we feel torn apart.  What is our first obedience, there is so much to do on a daily basis, what are we called to do?  Our obedience is that which we can do according to our lifestyle.

Prayers were offered for our fellow oblates, their families and our families.

MaryAnn Palmer read the Rule for today – Chapter 9 – which notes Psalms for night office.  Our commentary notes that sometimes we get lost in the details.  There are four elements of prayer 1) verse, 2)prayer (God), 3)doxology (trinity), and 4)response (oral prayer).  Prayer engages us, it is not passive, it demands our full attention, emersion in the scriptures makes them part of us.

For our next oblate meeting – Think of our conversion experiences and what it has done for us.

Obedience gives us

• freedom to obedient service [different heart, new spirit, conform to our values, keep the laws of God]
• freedom to serve God in a new way [the way of the spirit, the way of written code, a law to follow for structure, use our gifts]

We then broke into discussion groups.

• Group 1 – helping and supporting others; interruptions and our responses; values; listen after our prayers and allow God in; pass it forward; roll with it, be obedient to God’s will.
• Group 2 – following our conscience; obligation; balancing care-giving roles; God is with us all the time even when it is difficult; love God; finding Christ in others; follow God’s will through Liturg of the Hours and prayers to help us focus on God all day.
• Group 3 – start with prayer and reflect on what God wants; do wht we are told to do, want to do, loving what we’re told to do; increased prayer life; values: what God wants, spend wisely, think more of others, giving way to God’s calling.
• Group 4 – all the above and add listening

Regional Oblate Meeting - November 1, 2008 at St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, MD.

Eleven St. Gerturde oblates attended the North American – Northeast Region bi-annual retreat for a day of reflection on St. Benedict and St. Paul led by Rt. Rev. Paschal Morlino, O.S.B., praise, prayer and the sharing by a panel of oblates from each monastery as they related their call to become an oblate.

Sister Patricia Kirk, O.S.B., Katherine Frick, Obl. O.S.B., Sister Charlotte Lee, O.S.B. and our own Sister Roni guided the oblates affiliated with Emmanuel Monastery, St. Benedict Monastery, St. Vincent Archabbey and St. Gertrude Monastery through a rewarding and uplifting retreat.

Father Paschal quoted Collosians 3:11-17, II Corinthians 1:15-20, and Thessalonians 5:13;  and The Rule of Benedict Chapters 4, 7 and 72.  He noted that we wear Christ everyday by our demeanor, what do other see?

• Patience
• What does God look like on me?
• Love
• Good works – gentleness, compassion
• Old self off – joy, peace, patience

St. Benedict and St. Paul give us an explanation of what perfection looks like.  What is the peace of Christ?  - the Word of Christ.  It does not take complex theology to live a good life.  Peace begins in the heart, peace is not an absence, it is a presence.  Seek out the right order – word, each other, share wisdom, THEN our hearts can sing songs.  The work is very slow, peace takes a lifetime.  Our task is to let the word of Christ dwell in us.  We can’t impose peace, it must come from our hearts.  PAX – God is with us at all hours of the day (at St. Benedict Church the clock chimes every fifteen minutes to note that).  WE make God present ourselves.  Always ask, What does God want me to learn from this?  We do not have to be successful but faithful.

During the second half of the day, we heard from four oblates, Jeannette, our Mary Ann, Helen and Helen as they related how they became oblates.  We followed each talk with a two minute refelction and after all were finished we discussed the recurrent themes in each call:

·        Coming home

·        Structure

·        Journey

·        Balance

·        Hours

·        Connection to others

·        Becoming

·        Listen

·        Honesty

·        Ritual

·        Constant prayer

·        Community prayer