Getting started

OK, so here's the scoop.  I have been teaching theology in a Catholic high school for over 12 years now.  After my wife and kids, helping my students to understand new things about faith is one of the greatest joys in my life.  This year, for the first time, I am teaching the World Religions classes to seniors.  We recently studied Islam, a topic which my students were not only eager to study, but one which they embraced with their full ability to understand.  Their inquisitiveness, compassion and desire to learn something outside of their experience has been an inspiration to me.  I too share their hunger to learn of the unknown.

As we studied the "Five Pillars of Islam" I was intrigued by the month long fast of Ramadan.  As a Catholic I have annually "fasted" during Lent by "giving up" pop or chocolate or beer or swearing or some other nice idea that frittered out after about three weeks.  But my annual failure pales in comparison to the annual commitment engaged by Muslims throughout the world.  I will have many, many more thoughts about this in the future but here is my preliminary idea . . . 

I am psyching myself up to make this next Lent a personal Ramadan.  By this I mean that in my Lenten fast of 2011 I intend to follow the guidelines of the month-long Ramadan fast of Islam.  The purpose of this is both to attempt to understand how over one billion people in our world celebrate their faith and to afford myself the opportunity for something different, challenging and (hopefully) faith-building in my own life as a Christian.   I will be working out the details in the weeks and months to come . . . after all, Ash Wednesday isn't until March 9.  But I want to begin chronicling my thought process now.

Perhaps at least one person of goodwill out in cyberspace will join me in this journey, however it may end.