India: Journeying together through Lent and Ramadan

This year Ramadan coincided with Lent, offering a beautiful occasion to make of this time a moment of interreligious dialogue and learning.

I relocated to Delhi for work a few months ago. A providential meeting with Fr Joseph Victor Edwin SJ, a teacher of theology and Christian Muslim relations at Delhi's Vidyajyoti College of Theology and Secretary of the Islamic Studies Association, led to my being introduced to a little booklet titled Journeying with Muslims: Listening, Praying and Working Together by Cardinal Michael Louis Fitzgerald. Fr Edwin spoke to me of an initiative that some Christian friends had embarked on: to accompany our Muslim brothers and sisters throughout Ramadan by reading a daily excerpt from this booklet. At the end of Ramadan and after celebrating Easter we were to meet online together to share the experience done.

I found the idea very appealing, as I felt a great need to learn more about the beliefs of my new Muslim friends in Delhi. March 10 marked the start of the holy season during which Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset. That morning after my customary meditation on sacred Christian texts, I read a chapter from Cardinal Fitzgerald's little book. Day after day I discovered the titles of the Suras in the Holy Quran, contemplating their spiritual wisdom. I felt I was entering into a heart-to-heart dialogue with Muslims.

It was a discovery for me to learn that Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is the most joyous month for Muslims around the world, even though it is a month of fasting, as it is also a month of prayer, reflection, and community. In denying themselves the most existential needs like food and water, Muslims are encouraged to be their best selves, so Ramadan becomes a joyous moment of deep self-discovery. Like Lent, Ramadan invites believers to return to their spiritual core. Like Lent it is a moment to pause, turn the noise down and be more attentive to the life of the Spirit. I felt one with my Muslim friends in this time of deep self-reflection and reassessment of my relationship with God and my fellow human beings.

The day of our online meeting arrived. It was such a joy to connect across continents with friends from Islamic, Baha'i and Christian faith hailing from India, Italy, Algeria and Congo. Professor Gaetano Sabetta moderated the session with great professionality, switching effortlessly from English to Italian to ensure that the sharing of all present was fully and faithfully conveyed. After an initial prayer each participant shared the experience of having lived a truly meaningful Ramadan, sharing one's own faith with others of a different belief, in a discovery of shared fraternity.

Professor Nadjia Kebour, a lecturer at the Missiology Department of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome related how the atmosphere of Ramadan is hardly felt where she lives now in Italy, differently from her hometown in Algeria where the joy of Ramadan and each day's Iftar is felt throughout the community. Yet she felt deep joy when the students and staff greeted her on the feast of Eid, and she sincerely felt the participation and closeness of all. Fr. Hemprey from Congo, a student of Prof. Nadija shared his gratitude for the witness she gives to her faith in their university. Silvano and Angela from Salerno in Italy are of the Baha'i faith, a tiny minority in the country. Angela shared how she is learning the Arabic language and is studying the Koran to be able to know better her friends of Muslim faith, recounting a number of episodes of offering prayers and concrete help to people of other faith. Experiences were shared on the insight gained in accompanying our Muslim friends this Ramadan, rediscovering the attributes given to God of Creator, Forgiveness and Mercy. Fr Edwin shared about the beauty of the symbolism of Sura 95 al-tin (The Fig), which vividly expresses the fruitfulness of man's life and destiny when lived in communion with God.

We concluded by reciting together the first Sura of the Koran, the "Al-Fatiha" in English, Arabic and Italian, giving praise to God. The online session was truly an experience of brotherhood and sisterhood, a communion of the celebration of the abundant life in God that we are reminded of through Easter and Eid.

My heart was full of gratitude for receiving so much love in this hour. I couldn't but keep recalling to mind the prayer we raised together that day:

O God, you are the source of life and peace.
Praised be your name forever.
You turn our minds and hearts to thoughts of peace, of brotherhood.
Our world is passing through so many crises.

Hear our prayer, your power changes hearts.

Muslims and Christians profoundly affirm
that they are followers of the one God
Children of one Father, brothers and sisters;

May all nations seek the way of peace together.

Help us give witness to this truth by the way we live.
Give us understanding, mercy, forgiveness.

Help us live in your law of love. Amen.