The fourth and final step for our spiritual tuneup is to act. No, you don’t have to join a stage group (although that may be what your reading, praying, and reflecting move you to do). Rather you are at a new place where you can choose to be in the world in a way that is more in sync with yourself and with God.

I’ve just started reading The Beating of Great Wings by Marianist Father Bernard Lee, SM, and in the very first few pages he says that action is not identical with activity. “Action is the exercised responsibility for collaborating with God historically in the redemption of historical experience.” (page 3) While he doesn’t define “activity” at this point, the image that comes to mind is “doing stuff” or the big and little things that make up our daily roster of activities. I also get a sense that “activity” as a sort of frenetic experience, a bit random and perhaps lacking or verging on lacking control.

Had I read Lee’s definition of action (especially in contradistinction to activity) and not already pondered this 4-step process, I probably would have thought to myself, wow, that’s a tall order to be responsible for collaborating with God in the redemption of anything, even a pop bottle or can! But the care-full process of immersing oneself in reading, praying, and reflecting is what prepares the way for being a person of action, a person who collaborates with God in redemption. That “redemption of historical experience” means that it begins with us and our everyday lived experience — shopping for diapers, working, studying for finals, having a drink with friends at the bar, sitting in traffic, etc. It also means being mindful of and action-oriented toward the needs of the bigger world — our neighborhood, our country, our world. This is the stage, so to speak, for collaborating with God.

Thoughts, questions, ponderings, ideas, inspirations? What’s percolating?

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

My friends on Plurk continue to pass along good info about which to blog. I learned from @TeresaDKG that today is World MDG Blogging Day. MDG stands for Millennium Development Goals which are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.

According to the United Nations:

“The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.”

Did you know that there are 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day? Too often we simply think of such people as “the poor” but never with a name or face. Partly, I think, we just can’t cope with the reality of poverty and the suffering of others and so it’s easier to generalize and relegate it to the nebulous “poor”. Keeping it abstract keeps us safe from having to do anything. I know that’s harsh, but I feel it too and honestly don’t really know how to deal with the reality of poverty which I witness right in front of me here on the streets of Chicago.

I am hoping that our October 15 discussion on poverty for Blog Action Day 2008 will help us not only reflect more on the call to end poverty but also some practical ideas for how we can do so in our daily life. Sobrino’s book is not all that easy to read (so I’ve found) but over the next two weeks, I’ll pull out some interesting quotes that we can reflect on together or if you are reading the book, let me know what stirs you.

On October 15, 2008, Blog Action Day has invited bloggers to have a conversation about poverty on their blogs with you, our readers. This is a world-wide effort to raise awareness about, learn about, and find ways to end poverty.

I’m happy to announce that A Nun’s Life will be participating in this effort. On October 15 (feast of Saint Teresa of Avila), I’ll host a conversation around the theme of poverty with you and other readers. I’d like your help in this. I want to know what you’d like to do on this day. Is there a particular aspect that you’d like to discuss? or would you rather focus on fund-raising? or look at the Catholic Church’s social teaching on poverty? Please use the comment box below to offer your ideas and suggestions. If you’d like to help out in any way, let me know that too. I’m looking forward to the day and will write more about it closer to the day.

If you are a blogger, please consider hosting a conversation about poverty on your blog too.