Fasting for Revelation

Tonight, I'm setting my alarm a good bit earlier than usual so I can have my breakfast before dawn.

It's Ramadan. Around the world, Muslims are fasting. This year, I'm going to join them.

I'm not a Muslim and don't pretend to really know the faith or its tradition. I'm content as a lapsed Catholic. I'm not fasting for conversion, but...

Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism - all the rest have thrust our nation into Islam, and Islam before each one of us. Many Americans have sought greater understanding through tuning into television specials, reading articles or picking up some books.

I'm going to see what putting down my fork can do.

Ramadan recalls the time Mohammed received the Quran. It seems appropriate to wonder what God has to say these days. Again, and after centuries, we're walking up toward holy war. Where's God in this? A month attending to that question seems like time well spent.

Discipline and conscious deprivation figure in a lot of faiths because they are means of remembering there is more to us than just what we consume or own or gather to ourselves. I could use reminding.

Charity has a role in Ramadan. A taste of hunger triggers deeper empathy for those without the promise of a feast and celebration at the month's end. For me, there are two lessons here: remember one another and transform discomfort from a centering on self into an invitation out into the world.

The fasting comes -- within our hemisphere -- just at the autumn equinox. Each day the fast will shorten slightly as the planet tips more sharply on its orbit and whirls us into winter. It seems right to pay attention to the tinge upon the leaves and the sharp edge of the first fall breeze. I hope the fast will help me here.

Catholicism has long respected the quiet acts of cloistered nuns and monks. The contemplative are honored for their contributions to the world¿even if those contributions aren't so readily apparent. This is the faith, however faltering, I'll bring into the month: that somehow, my experience might help.

We're promised insight for each mile walked in someone else's shoes, for wearing shoes -- not for conversion, not for picking up another person's burdens or belief, or for presuming we can fully understand. I'm giving it a month, and hoping for some minor revelation -- something I can do to make things better.