January 2016 Meeting Minutes

Cincinnati Oblate Chapter Minutes January 24, 2016

Attendance: Susan Anderson, Clyde Dorn, Pat Dorn, Rosemary Conrad, Joan Hilton, Ron DeMarco, John Campbell, Payton Reed, Mary Louise Reed, Mainerd Sorensen, Beverly Winner, Ursula Hassel. (Our oblate members from the east of Cincinnati were absent due to their parish having a celebratory function they wanted to attend.)

Introductions and reading of the Mission Statement opened our meeting.
Second Sunday Vespers of Week Three was prayed together.
Lectio Divina was shared together using Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21.

The Minutes of November 22, 2015 were approved. Rosemary Conrad (for Nick McCarroll) says that we received enough in donations at the November meeting to cover our $25 deficit from the November meeting. We will need $50 to have enough to cover the expenses of the monk coming to our February meeting.

New/Old Business: This meeting is Ursula’s last time with us as she will be joining a Jesuit prayer group which will fill the need for prayer structure in her life. We wish her well and glad she was with us up until now. Also, Ron DeMarco explained to us that Stephen Drees has accepted a new job which is headquartered out of state and requires much travel, and read Stephen’s nice letter that he wrote to our group. We hope Stephen has a chance periodically to join us. Let’s pray for Stephen and Ursula in their new pursuits. Ron brought newly produced oblate stickers from Saint Meinrad, available for $4.00, a correction in price from the $3.00 he originally thought they were. Ron also made mention of an addition to Fr. Luke’s presentation. Fr. Luke added to Ron’s meeting notes that our calling (vocation) may lead to holiness, yet a sign that it is not our calling is the absence of peace. Thank you Fr. Luke.

Our video presentation was by Fr. Harry Hagan, OSB, “Praying the Psalms 2: Praise and Petition” Fr. Harry began by telling us that there are two large groups of psalms: praise and petition. Sometimes it is important to know the group a psalm is in to see how it is different from one like it to see what it emphasizes. A psalmist is speaking to other people or to God. Fr. Harry asks, why do we praise a person? We praise someone to express appreciation, to recognize something good that they have. We praise someone by making a statement about the person. This is the basis of praise, a statement of recognition. Why do we praise God? We express what God has done for us, praise reinforces our awareness. We are just so pleased about God that we have to say it. We feel compelled to make the praise being so thankful for what he has done for us. It is an overwhelming feeling of joy. Fr. Harry then went through several examples of psalms of praise (Ps 117, 34, 99, 148). Psalms often begin with a “call” to praise (e.g., Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples). And they often have the key word “for” when the psalmist states the reason for the praise (e.g., for great is his steadfast love for me). The Petition psalms will be covered in a video at a future meeting.

Submitted by Ron DeMarco