The evening gathering on April 5 drew about 30 people representing both congregations. As the Masjid Muhammad Mosque, located a few blocks away, is undergoing a building expansion and renovation, Holy Redeemer has opened up its lower church hall for its Muslim neighbours to have their Jumah Friday prayer there.

In addition to participating in the interfaith discussion on fasting, two imams from Masjid Muhammad led men and women from their mosque in the Maghrib call to prayer at sunset and then in the Iftar fast-breaking evening meal, which they shared with the Holy Redeemer parishioners and guests.

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In the spring of 2019, after a series of high profile attacks on Muslim people in New York City and a reported rise in Islamophobia, I felt compelled to act in tangible solidarity with this vulnerable and targeted community.

It just so happened that Ramadan was starting the next day. I decided I would observe its discipline of fasting as a way of accompaniment and solidarity.

I knew this sacred time in the Islamic tradition meant abstaining from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, but I discovered it was even more rigorous.

You fast from dawn—that is, even before the sun rises—until sunset.

It also did not occur to me then that when Ramadan (the dates of which are determined by a lunar calendar) falls in the spring, with each passing day, sunrise comes earlier and sunset moves later.

Unlike Lent, where the tendency is to count down the days to Easter—or to look forward to the permissible reprieve on Sundays, when the Lenten penance can be suspended — fasting gradually becomes harder through the duration of Ramadan.

Years later, I still observe this sacred Islamic time's practice of fasting. It heightens my awareness of the afflictions that so many are forced to endure and the ways our world still needs healing.

Two years ago, for example, I used the Ramadan fast to pray for the people of Ukraine, and also to become more aware of the little things I take for granted.

I could, for example, turn on my faucet in the morning and expect water would run. For millions of people in Ukraine, that was and still is not something they can assume.

I was also able to teach my classes at Fordham uninterrupted. Many children in Ukraine are still unable to go to school.

That's the gift of fasting; it attunes us with a deeper level of reality. The discipline of fasting helps me to see the world as God sees it.

Fasting has helped me to look at the world around me in a new way: We are all vulnerable, but we are not all vulnerable in the same way or to the same degree.

The American way of life

The first two weeks of my first Ramadan fast, I felt kind of proud of myself.

"I can actually do this!" I thought. But it gradually became more mentally and physically exhausting.

I learned, as I read more about Ramadan, that it was not simply about the external practice of refraining from food or liquids.

Ramadan, for Muslims, is a time to become aware of all that is going on around you so that you can come closer to God (or Allah, as the Holy One is named in Islam).

The hunger pains experienced are supposed to help the one fasting become more aware of those who go hungry without choice.

What I voluntarily endure over this annual month-long daytime fasting period is something so many in our world endure without choice.

However hungry or depleted I might feel, I can eagerly anticipate the end of the day when I can break the fast. For far too many the burdens of hunger will only increase as their bodies consistently go without food.

The American way of life is one that avoids the reality of vulnerability. We don't like to dwell on the fact that many people wonder where their next meal is coming from. We presume we are to live a comfortable lifestyle. Read more

• The Rev. Bryan N. Massingale is a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University.

Or, an even better moral: When you're deciding what to do for Lent, be childlike, not childish. Read more

According to an account in Reader's Digest, when Cincinnati McDonald's franchise owner Lou Groen noticed that his heavily Catholic clientele was avoiding his restaurant on Fridays, he suggested to McDonald's owner Ray Kroc that they add introduce a fish sandwich. Read more

Christians subject to fasting edicts at that time were banned from eating meat from four-legged animals, but they could eat chickens and eggs. Continue reading

In order to identify with Christ's self-sacrifice, Christians often join in a symbolic fast, giving up certain foods such as meat or chocolate or even giving up certain practices.

In recent years, fasting from the internet or other forms of technology has become popular. Fasting from technology is encouraged by many religious leaders as the ideal way for individuals to reflect on their daily dependency on technology.

Sometimes called taking a "digital Sabbath," it refers to the Christian and Jewish practice, in which one day a week is set aside as sacred.

On such a day, secular practices such as using media are halted in order to help believers focus on God and their faith.

This is based on the premise that the best way to critically engage with technology is to unplug from it. It's a way to remember that true communication is unmediated by technology and grounded in being with one another in the "real world."

Unplugging from social media or limiting one's internet use for a set period such as during Lent can be helpful for some individuals.

My research, conducted over two decades, however, shows that some of core assumptions on which digital fasting is based on can be problematic or misguided.

Technology can, in fact, be good for religion. The question is, how do we engage with technology thoughtfully and actively?

Media and immoral values?

First, let's look at how religious groups interact and make decisions about new forms of media.

In my recent book, "Networked Theology," my coauthor Stephen Garner and I discuss how some religious communities believe the media primarily promote immoral values and frivolous entertainment.

Therefore, they insist interaction with media via digital devices should be controlled, just as is done during a digital fast. Continue reading

Sources

• The Conversation, article by Heidi A. Campbell, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University.
• Image: Salon

Fasting should be a meaningful gesture of self-denial out of love for God. All the better if it helps us grow in self-control and deeper appreciation for various pleasures, conveniences and luxuries in our lives.

If you want to try something a little different this year, consider the following alternatives.

1) Screen time and digital devices

Most of us have some level of attachment to our gadgets and digital media, and Lent is the perfect time to fast from them. Perhaps it's no TV before bedtime, no random web surfing during the day, or no social media until Easter. You might consider going completely screens-free on weekends or using your smartphone for essential communication only.

2) Negative talk and criticism

It's a rare person who doesn't criticize others occasionally or engage in some form of negative talk — a light jab here, an unnecessary comment there. Fasting from this kind of speech is much easier said than done, but it's a powerful act of self-denial that can change you for the better.

3) Hot showers

There's nothing like a hot shower to get your morning started, but consider turning that temperature down and submitting yourself to lukewarm or cold showers instead. Another alternative is to set a timer and take short showers instead of leisurely ones. (Which of course will be easy the colder the water is!) In February and March, this can be an especially tough sacrifice. Then again, Jesus died on the cross for you. Just saying.

4) Non-essential shopping

Many people have a hard time saying no to the latest gadget, a fabulous new pair of shoes or little extras like gourmet coffees when they're out and about. Consider staying away from shops during Lent. You can take this a step further and give some of the money you save as alms — another pillar of Lenten practice. Continue reading

• Zoe Romanowsky is lifestyle editor and video content producer for Aleteia, the source of the article above.

At a press conference following the release of Laudato Si', the cardinal was asked about the encyclical's appeal for "sobriety and self-denial".

Cardinal Nichols said that people needed to go beyond reading the encyclical in a "puritanical way".

He said Pope Francis wanted the faithful to recognise that when it comes to consumerism "less is better".

The cardinal added that being trapped on an escalator where you "always want more" is not a "happy escalator".

Cardinal Nichols also highlighted that the encyclical made clear that when we purchase any object we make an ethical choice and that indviduals should ask themselves "do I need this?"

Among the many messages in Laudato Si' the Pope wrote: "A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment."

Cardinal Nichols described the encyclical as a thoroughly Catholic teaching document.

Meanwhile, the Church of England's General Synod is set to approve a proposal that asks congregations to skip lunch on the first day of each month.

A motion to be launched by the Bishop Nicholas Holtam of Salisbury will require bishops and vicars to "encourage prayer and fasting for climate justice on the first day of each month".

Bishop Holtam has described climate change as "the most pressing moral issue in our world".

The plea is part of a green overhaul by the Church of England which will also see trainee priests instructed in "eco theology" and "eco-justice" alongside the Bible.

The new subject for theological colleges is designed to ensure that the next generation of vicars become "enablers for others in seeking change and a sustainable future".

Two days before the Pope's encyclical was released, the Archbishop of Canterbury produced a declaration signed by British faith leaders calling for a low carbon economy.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Daily Mail
• Laudato Si'
• Image: CathNews USA

Some of the themes correlate well with films that tell stories that foster reflection, conversation and spiritual growth.

Lent is a journey that calls for prayer, fasting and confessing of sin. Emilio Estevez's 2010 film "The Way" tells about Tom (Martin Sheen), who walks the ancient Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain with his son's ashes.

Tom meets three other pilgrims along the way. At the end, you have to ask yourself if the others were really "real" or aspects of Tom's fragmented inner world that he came to know so as to be made whole again.

I have used this film many times with groups for retreats and have now seen it 22 times. I always see something new.

"Return to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12). In this year's "Wild," based on a true story, Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl, a woman whose life is in tatters.

To regain the values her mother (Laura Dern) taught her, she walks the Pacific Crest Trail. Though not so specifically religious as "The Way," Cheryl is nonetheless on a journey to become a better human being, to regain herself.

It is a journey of purification so that she can begin anew. For Cheryl, this is an inner journey of the heart.

Prayers accompanied by tears. In Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's 2011 film "Where Do We Go Now?", the Catholic Maronite and Muslim women of a rural Lebanese village grow weary of burying their men, and join together to stop their men from killing each other whenever a provocation occurs.

This is one of those subtle comedies that surprises and runs deep. Continue reading

• Sr Rose Pacatte in National Catholic Reporter

Sr. Rose Pacatte, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, is the Director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles.

July 15 was designated as an appropriate occasion as it fell on significant fasting days in Jewish and Muslim religious calendars.

It was the 17th of the month of Tammuz on the Hebrew calendar, which begins a three-week mourning period for the loss of the two Jerusalem temples.

It is also in the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours.

The fasting movement was coined as #hungryforpeace on Twitter.

A Twitter campaign and subsequent plan for a day of fasting began in Israel and gained momentum in the United Kingdom and the United States.

It aimed at encouraging both sides in the Middles East conflict to resolve their differences and end ongoing bloodshed.

The fast took place as rocket fire continued to be exchanged between Israel and the Gaza strip, in the wake of the killings of three kidnapped Israeli teens and subsequent killing of a Palestinian teen.

Gaza's Health Ministry reports that 185 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed since missile strikes escalated last month.

The Israeli military resumed airstrikes on Gaza on July 15, after the government had agreed to an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire deal that failed to end Hamas rocket attacks.

Yachad, a pro-Israel, pro-peace group based in the UK, was one of the main promoters of the international fast day.

Hannah Weisfeld, director of Yachad, said that her group promoted the day with the hope of encouraging peace between Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

"Through the fast, British Jews want to loudly and clearly call for de-escalation, return of calm, return to the negotiating table and the creation of two states for two peoples, the only way that can guarantee stability and security in the long run."

Lee Ziv, an Israeli peace activist, started a Facebook page called "The Bus of Peace".

She is organising a bus to drive from Jerusalem to Gaza with flowers and peace slogans to demonstrate the goodwill of many Israelis toward the people of Gaza.

"The tears of an Israeli mother over her dead son are identical to those of a Palestinian Mother," Ziv said.

Sources

• Christian Post
• Patheos
• Religion News Service
• Independent
• Image: Behebekfalasteen

This tradition persists in the Orthodox Churches where even today fasting is characterised by abstinence from all animal products.

But while abstaining from meat in the Roman tradition is mainly associated with the sacrifice of the Cross (the Friday penance), in the Orthodox tradition the fast is also a prefiguration of life in paradise, where ‘the wolf shall live with the lamb … and a little child shall lead them' (Isaiah 11:6).

In this way it becomes an act of reconciliation between humanity and the natural world, a restoration of a relationship which has suffered because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

I believe that the meaning of a Lenten fast can be deepened by reflecting on this ancient practice of meat abstinence in the light of reconciliation with creation.

Lent is a time to reflect on our habits, and to become free from habits that are harmful to ourselves and others in order to become healthier people, in body and in spirit.

However, Lent is not an end in itself. It prepares the Christian to become an Easter-person by instilling habits that make one free to live, by the grace of God, a life of charity and justice.

To fast to this effect, the physical fast of Lent must be accompanied by what Origen calls a ‘spiritual fasting', which is characterised by two dimensions: exercise in the virtue of temperance and the avoidance of sin. Continue reading.

Source: Thinking Faith

Image: vegetables.co.nz

So many of the rich images, words, and themes that will recur at the Easter Vigil are hinted in the day's readings and prayers — the anointing of David with oil, the enlightening of the man born blind in John, and the Letter to the Ephesians' call to "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

Like the paschal exsultet in the middle of the darkness of the Easter Vigil, Laetare Sunday is a bright little burst of light and joy in the midst of Lent.

And, not coincidentally, it coincides with these first uncertain, hesitant bursts of springtime found in European and North American climates at this time of year.

Here in Washington, D.C., where I live, we have had 70-degree days followed by snow in the past week, and very confused crocuses attempting to push their way towards the sun.

The name "Laetare Sunday" comes from the introit text -

"Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam"

"Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her" Continue reading.

Brian Flanagan, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Theology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Source: Daily Theology

Image: Marymount University

I really don't think Lent is about giving up or taking on more, as such; rather, it's about seeking God with more intensity of focus than we manage at other times.

To do that we need simplicity— and we have become such complicated creatures that simplicity is more and more alien to us.

That is why our lives need to take on a plainness they often lack.

Our food is simpler and less copious; our prayer is simpler, too, reverting to more ancient forms, especially as we enter Holy Week.

Our compassion — almsgiving — has, or should have, a wider spread; and all because we seek the Lord. Love is our motive, and Love himself our reward. Continue reading.

Sr Catherine Wybourne is a Benedictine nun of Benedictine nun from Holy Trinity Monastery, Howton Grove Priory, U.K.

Source: iBenedictines

Image: @DigitalNun

Or a faithful guide and friendly reminder to practice virtue, do good works and read Scripture?

Whatever you're searching for to help you draw closer to Jesus Christ these 40 days of Lent, there's an app to help you.

"It's a beautiful thing to have access to, and it expands our growth and understanding of the faith or an aspect of our spirituality that we need to develop," said Daughter of St Paul Sister Anne Flanagan, a social-media authority who is known as the "Nunblogger."

"An advantage of these technological tools that we have is that it reminds us that we're not [going through Lent] on our own as individuals," she added. Continue reading.

Source: National Catholic Register

Image: mashable.com