Father Rod has become something of an institution in Australia in recent years thanks to social media. He is the master of the pithy comment. Many, many love him. Many, many loathe him. I am pretty certain that to-day's comment (the Islamic equivalent of Merry Christmas or Happy New Year for Christians) will drive the fanatics and the bigots nuts. However, that doesn't both Father Rod. Go here and you will find a mass of his epigrams for people to enjoy or be driven nutty.But he won't be stopped!
If you want something a little bit longer and meatier than Father Rod's succinct signage, you can get his sermons. They are erudite and meatier and you can get a feel for the man himself in action. People sometimes wonder out aloud what Father Rod's boss, the Bishop, thinks of all this. First of all, I think everyone in the Diocese of Newcastle is used to all this. Second of all, thanks to electronic media, he has acquired as much or more fame than Jesus did in His day and - what is more - he uses it wisely and well.
So, please join me and many other Australians tonight at 9.35pm. Father Rod - or to give him his precise title the Venerable Rod Bower - when he appears on the ABC current affairs television program, Q and A.
Ramadan (also known as Ramadhan or Ramzan) is the ninth month in the Islamic
calendar. It is a period of prayer, fasting, charity-giving and
self-accountability for Muslims in Australia. The first verses of the Koran
(Qu'ran) were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (also written as Mohammad or Muhammed)
during the last third of Ramadan, making this an especially holy period.
Fasting occurs during daylight but meals can be eaten when the Sun is down during Ramadan.
Many Muslims in
Australia fast during the daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. Fasting
during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars (fundamental religious duties) of Islam. It is a time of self-examination and increased religious devotion. It is
common to have a pre-fast meal (suhoor)
before sunrise and an evening meal (iftar)
after sunset during Ramadan. Some groups of people, including the chronically
ill, mentally challenged, and the elderly who cannot participate due to health
reasons, are exempt from fasting. It is also not allowed to have sexual
relations or smoke during the day.
What Do People Do?
Ramadan is also a
time for many Muslims to donate to charity by participating in food drives for
the poor, organizing a collection or charity event, and other voluntary
activities. They are also encouraged to read the Qur'an often during Ramadan.
Some Muslims recite the entire Qur'an by the end of Ramadan through special
prayers known as Tarawih, which
are held in the mosques every night of the month, during which a section of the
Qur'an is recited.
Public Life
Many Islamic
businesses and organizations may amend opening hours to suit prayer times
during Ramadan in Australia. There may also be some congestion around mosques
during prayer times, such as in the evenings.
Background
Ramadan is the ninth
month in the Islamic calendar, which consists of 12 months and lasts for about
354 days. The word “Ramadan” is derived from an Arabic word for intense heat,
scorched ground and shortness of food and drink. It is considered to be the
most holy and blessed month. Fighting is not allowed during this period.
The month of Ramadan
traditionally begins with a new moon sighting, marking the start of the ninth
month in the Islamic calendar. Many Muslims (except children, the sick and the
elderly) abstain from food, drink, and certain other activities during daylight
hours in Ramadan. This is considered as the holiest season in the Islamic year
and commemorates the time when the Qu’ran (Islamic holy book) is said to have
been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. This occurred on Laylat Al-Qadr, one of the last 10 nights of
the month. Ramadan ends when the first crescent of the new moon is
sighted again, marking the new lunar month’s start. Eid-al-Fitr is the Islamic holiday that
marks the end of Ramadan.
Note: Regional customs or
moon sightings may cause a variation of the date for Islamic holidays, which
begin at sundown the day before the date specified for the holiday. The Islamic
calendar is lunar and the days begin at sunset, so there may be one-day error
depending on when the New Moon is first seen.
Our deepest gratitude to Al Siraat College for their advocacy of the Halal Food Bank - Melbourne and our annual #CoverMe...
Posted by SeekersPoint Melbourne on Friday, 3 July 2015
Dave Andrews tells us about Ramadan from the perspective of a Christian with Muslim friends. Many thx to Dave for his permission to publish his Facebook post below.
My Reasons For Fasting As A Christian With Muslim Friends In Ramadan
I don’t know a lot, but let me tell you the little bit I have learnt about Ramadan over the last few years. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. It is a period of prayer, fasting, reflection, solidarity, accountability and charity.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars (religious duties) of Islam. It is a time of self-examination and increased religious devotion Fasting occurs during daylight but meals can be eaten when the sun is down. It is common to have a pre-fast meal (suhoor) before sunrise and an evening meal (iftar) after sunset during Ramadan. Groups of people, including the chronically ill, mentally challenged, and the elderly who cannot participate due to health reasons, are exempt from fasting.
Muslims are encouraged to read the Qur'an often during Ramadan. Some Muslims recite the entire Qur'an by the end of Ramadan through special prayers known as Tarawih, which are held in the mosques every night of the month, during which a section of the Qur'an is recited. I have one Muslim friend, MK, who knows the whole of the Qur’an by heart and can recite it all by himself.
Muhammad Nazreen says ‘Ramadan has created a stream consciousness for us to rethink the system. For instance, consumerism becomes a major hindrance for the development of the marginalised poor. Ramadan gives us chances to sober up on how the poor are mistreated by the inequalities of the economic system. During this fasting month, we are encouraged to give more and get less. Perhaps, this might be an implicit message that we can learn from Ramadan.’
Ramadan is a time for Muslims to remember the hungry as they go hungry and many Muslims donate to charity by participating in food drives for the poor, organizing a collection or charity event, and other voluntary activities. During Ramadan our friends from AMARAH (Australian Muslim Advocates for the Rights of All Humanity) join us in our community meals with the ‘marginalised poor’.
The Oxford University Islamic academic, Tariq Ramadan, says: ‘Human beings must undertake the fast in a spirit of seeking nearness to the Unique, of equality and nobility among their fellows, women and men alike, and in solidarity with the downtrodden. The core of life thus rediscovered is this: to return to our hearts, to reform ourselves in the light of what is essential, and celebrate life in solidarity.’
I may not always fast during Ramadan, but I have wanted to fast and pray as a Christian with my Muslim friends during Ramadan in the last few years because it's a joy to fast and pray with friends, we remind ourselves once again of the priority of loving God and loving our neighbor, we demonstrate our solidarity as brothers and sisters in the Abrahamic families of faith, we reflect on the cruel limitations and contradictions of the consumerist capitalist system we inhabit and we remember the plight of the ‘marginalised poor’ being forced to go without food involuntarily whom we are called to serve.
The stifling Brazil heat has already ensured there will be drink intervals at the World Cup, yet several footballers could also be affected by Ramadan, the Islamic period of worship, during the finals when the contest enters the knockout phase. For more please go to this link
Social communication over the past two decades has been transformed by innovation and technology. Ballarat Interfaith Network has recently put its toe into the social media pond - and is interested in what faith figures have to say about these new forms of communication:
Here is the translation of the communique released by the Holy See explaining the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the 48th World Day of Social Communication which will be held next year.
* * * Communication at the service of an authentic culture of encounter
The capacity to communicate is at the heart of what it means to be human. It is in and through our communication that we are able to meet and encounter at a meaningful level other people, express who we are, what we think and believe, how we wish to live and, perhaps more importantly, to come to know those with whom we are called to live. Such communication calls for honesty, mutual respect and a commitment to learn from each other.
It requires a capacity to know how to dialogue respectfully with the truth of others. It is often what might be perceived initially as ‘difference’ in the other that reveals the richness of our humanity. It is the discovery of the other that enables us to learn the truth of who we are ourselves.
In our modern era, a new culture is developing advanced by technology, and communication is in a sense "amplified" and "continuous". We are called to "rediscover, through the means of social communication as well as by personal contact, the beauty that is at the heart of our existence and journey, the beauty of faith and of the beauty of the encounter with Christ." (Address of Pope Francis to participants at the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, 21 September 2013).
In this context, each one of us should accept the challenge to be authentic by witnessing to values, Christian identity, cultural experiences, expressed with a new language and shared with others.
Our ability to communicate, reflected in our participation in the creative, communicative and unifying Trinitarian Love, is a gift which allows us to grow in personal relationships, which are a blessing in our lives, and to find in dialogue a response to those divisions that create tensions within communities and between nations.
The age of globalization is making communication possible even in the most remote parts of the world, but it is also important "to use modern technologies and social networks in such a way as to reveal a presence that listens, converses and encourages." (Address of Pope Francis to participants at the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, 21 September 2013), so that nobody is excluded.
The Message for World Communications Day 2014 will explore the potential of communication, especially in a networked and connected world, to bring people closer to each other and to co-operate in the task of building a more just world.
World Communications Day, the only worldwide celebration called for by the Second Vatican Council ("Inter Mirifica", 1963), is celebrated in most countries, on the recommendation of the bishops of the world, on the Sunday before Pentecost (June 1st in 2014).
The Holy Father’s message for World Communications Day is traditionally published in conjunction with the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers (January 24).
