I have been meditating on the Vow of Poverty this morning after reading comments on the Nun News Roundup podcast we did on Friday.

Jean raises some very good questions about discerning a call to religious life and encountering the question of privilege. Here’s what she wrote in part:

I am struggling mightily with a concern that 21st century American religious life may place many of its new or younger entrants (post-1990s, say, and I did just pull that out of my hat) in a tremendously privileged life and socioeconomic/cultural class in this society. That the matter of who legally owns the resources can be, in real terms, very much “semantics”, placing many religious and communities well and even deep within the ranks of the “non-poor” in terms of both concrete resources and the stew of privilege (or not) that is “class”, a powerful possibility in this society.

Jean, poverty and the vow of poverty are not easy realities to get one’s head around! But it is good to tangle with them as you are considering your calling in life and exploring religious life. I pulled your comments to the fore because I know I thought about them when I was discerning religious life (still do!) and I know others are as well. So I think this conversation will be helpful to many. All are welcome (as always) to participate in the conversation.

Although not all sisters and nuns profess a vow of poverty, one of three evangelical counsels (the other 2 are chastity and obedience … Jesus’ advice to those who wish to dedicate their lives to God), all religious strive to live this virtue in their personal and communal life.

Here are a couple of my thoughts on the vow of poverty … one comes from my reading of Pope Benedict XVI’s book on Jesus of Nazareth and the other comes from a visitor’s question a while back about the different dimensions of poverty. It’s important to note that poverty in the sense of the vow, the evangelical counsel, is not the same as poverty in the sense of destitution or lack of subsistence or means of supporting oneself or one’s family.

I would like to hear more from you about the topic of living poverty as a religious. If you are a sister or nun, what does this mean for you? If you are discerning like Jean, what concerns do you have? And for all visitors, do you find echoes of the evangelical counsel of poverty in your own life?

P.S. Join us for prayer at midday today — live at noon Central Time.

Today is Blog Action Day: Poverty. Bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters across the globe are addressing the issue of global poverty so that together we can raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. A Nun’s Life blog is participating today by hosting a discussion on poverty in light of faith by using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor. This morning, I’d like to start off with a simple” question:

What does “no salvation outside the poor” mean to you?

Special Note:
For those of you on Plurk or Twitter, Denise205 will be covering the comments on A Nun’s Life throughout the day.

These are just a few Catholic resources on poverty that I have used and found helpful. Please add others that you have found helpful via the comment section below.

Catholic Charities USA on poverty in America

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Catholic Social Teaching Internet Resources

Pope Benedict XVI on Tackling Poverty

Putting a Face on Poverty

A “Dialogue” with Archbishop Oscar Romero

IHM Sisters Action Alerts

Mercy Volunteer Corps

Jesuit Volunteer Corps

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day 2008 on Poverty. A Nun’s Life will be hosting a book discussion using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor (Orbis 2008) as a springboard. It is not necessary to have read the book, but for those of us who have, please bring in your ideas, questions and thoughts.

Many of the thoughts in Sobrino’s book are based on the words of Ignacio Ellacuría, a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who was also a theologian and philosopher who contributed to the work of Liberation Theology. He was martyred in El Salvador in 1989. Sobrino says in the prologue to the book that his reflection is based on the words of Ellacuría in a speech given in Barcelona 10 days before his assassination:

“This civilization is gravely ill–sick unto death, as Jean Ziegler says; to avoid an ominous, fatal outcome, the civilization must be changed.” With absolute and radical clarity Ellacuría added, “We have to turn history around, subvert it, and send it in a new direction.” (page ix)

I’d like us to think on this quote a bit and also consider the title of the book itself — “no salvation outside the poor” — and what it means to you personally. I’ll also post a few other compelling quotes from the book as we go through the day. Please let me know if there are specific questions that you would like us to consider. There are no “experts” checking in, just you, me and the rest of the A Nun’s Life community to reflect on and ponder these questions. As always I welcome your thoughts.

Blogs across the World Wide Web will be writing about poverty tomorrow. Be sure to check them out for other lenses through which to view the issue of poverty. My hope is to offer a faith-inspired lens through which to look at not just poverty abstractly but to stand with our sisters and brothers who are poor.

Let us dare to dream that we can do something to eradicate poverty and to love and support all people.

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.

In honor of Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty, A Nun’s Life will be having a discussion on poverty on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. We will be using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor (Orbis 2008) as a springboard (click below to order from Amazon).

No Salvation Outside the Poor

While the book is not necessary to be part of the day’s conversation, it’s a good opportunity to read something new and to get deeper into what poverty is and how the Gospels call us to respond. It’s a short book (147 pages) comprised of 6 essays.

Get your copy and start reading. I’ll post more as we get closer to October 15.

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.

One of the readings of the day (1 Kings 17:7-16) is the story of how the great prophet Elijah was cared for by a woman who was a widow and a mom. Though the story is told from the perspective of Elijah, in so many ways it is the story of a woman’s faithfulness to and trust in God.

The story goes that God sent Elijah (who was hiding out in the wilderness) to the city of Zarephath where God said a widow would provide for Elijah who was hungry and thirsty. The woman, who is never named, is happy to give Elijah some water but says she has barely enough food left for herself and her son, let alone Elijah. In fact, she says, “Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.” Elijah tells the woman not to fear and that God will not allow her flour nor her oil to run out.

Here’s where I would have loved to have known what the woman was thinking. Some guy appears out of nowhere and asks for her hospitality. She does what she can, but then he asks her for what she cannot give. Were she to give him the food he asked for, she and her son would go hungry and be that much closer to the death she was already anticipating. The stranger tells her not to worry, that God will provide. What must have been going on within this woman? What grace was working within her to give her the strength to believe in God’s word as proclaimed through the mouth of a stranger?

This story blows me away because the woman finds it within herself to believe in something, someone larger than herself and her immediate concerns. Maybe she figures the end is near anyway so why not give it a shot? Maybe she has prayed and prayed for God’s help and understand Elijah’s appearance to be a sign from God. Maybe she so values the gift of hospitality that she is willing to extend it to a stranger in need, even though she herself is in need. I really don’t know, but I can tell you that I am deeply moved by this woman’s courage and faith. It’s something that I will continue to pray with throughout the day.

What do you see in this story? In what ways are you called to give hospitality from out of your poverty?

Just came across this great website — FreeRice.com — which donates 20 grains of rice for every word you correctly define. FreeRice.com, sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com, works with the UN World Food Program to help end hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

You don’t need to sign-up, log-in, or give out any personal info. You just have to define words. This is a great way to not only help others for FREE, but to improve your own vocabulary. It’s a bit addictive as I sat for I don’t know how long amassing a donation of 10,000 grains of rice. But what a great thing to do for others. I highly encourage you to check it out. Also, get your kids on the site — it helps them to learn words, have some fun and help others in the process!

I’ve been wanting to share with you a bit of my experience of the workshop for women and men religious that I went to a couple weeks ago. The workshop was called Poverty in a Land of Plenty and was led by my own IHM sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM. Sandra is an expert on the theology and history of religious life, especially its biblical roots, and is author of the trilogy Religious Life in a New Millennium (vol 1 = Finding the Treasure, vol 2 = Selling All, vol 3 = forthcoming).

A foundational insight in Sandra’s work is that religious life is not reducible to a career or religious sentiment; it’s a lifeform that is rooted in the crucified and risen Christ who is active among us today. We aren’t nuns (or monks) just because we like to help others or wear religious gear or participate in rituals. We are nuns because God has called us to orient our lives around the quest for God “in a total and exclusive way”. Sandra describes this well:

Religious … do not have exclusive access to holiness nor, necessarily, superiority in relation to it. What specifies their life, their “specialization,” is their exclusive life-commitment to religion itself. Like the person who shapes her or his life around art, or sports, or scientific research or family (even while also participating in some or all of the other spheres [of life]) and who may or may not be better than others in the chosen sphere, the Religious is a specialist in the God-quest in the sense of having structured her life life around it in a total and exclusive way. (Finding the Treasure 37)

“The Religious is a specialist in the God-quest.” Wow. I cannot finish typing that without a sense of fear and trembling. It’s no wonder this way of life is a calling from God because this is no small “specialization.”

I’ve often heard my nuns talk about the grace of office, how when a nun is elected to a position, she receives the grace to faithfully meet her responsibilities. Being called to leadership calls out skills and gifts in a new way. I think this “grace of office” thing applies to all of us when we make a life commitment such as becoming a Religious. We are each ordinary people, living the Gospel as best we can. But when we are called, it’s as if we receive a “new” grace from God to rise to the challenge of such a radical, powerful, beautiful way of life.

Celebrating Consecrated Life
“Poverty in a Land of Plenty”

… shared study, prayer and reflection with Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM …

When:

Friday, February 15 — 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. followed by a social
Saturday, February 16 — 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. lunch provided

Where:

Saint Giles Parish Hall
1025 N. Columbian Ave., Oak Park, IL

Cost:

$40.00 per person

Registration:

Click here — Celebrating Consecrated Life pdf — for the form which can be printed and mailed in with a check. Registration is due Monday, January 14.

Sister Sandra Schneiders is one of my nuns, an IHM Sister of Monroe, Michigan. She is one of the foremost scholars on religious life today. Among her recent publications are Finding the Treasure and Selling All, the first two volumes of a trilogy on Catholic Religious Life entitled “Religious Life in a New Millennium.”

See you there!