Principal’s Perspective: Fasting and Feasting

Christians and Muslims share a period of fasting and reflection this year as they mark holy moments in their religious calendars. Ramadan began on March 10 and will end at sundown on April 9. Lent began in February and continues to the last day of March, culminating on Easter Sunday. 
 
Holy times such as Lent and Ramadan invite us to ponder the meaning of life and be humble as we reflect on the great mystery in which we find ourselves. These periods also compel us to come to terms with seeming opposites—the temporal and eternal, the ordinary and extraordinary, the suffering and joy—which are a part of each moment of our existence. 
 
Holy times are for both fasting and feasting. They are seasons of repentance and renewal. They are moments for self-examination (looking inward) and ethical engagement (turning to others). They are occasions to mark death and welcome new life. The list goes on. 
 
March is also the month when we celebrate International Women’s Day (March 8) and honour the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21). These dates remind us of a stark reality: equality remains a goal we aspire to but have not yet achieved. For many of us, emancipation from oppression feels forever beyond reach. 
 
Today, domestic and gender-based violence and discrimination against racialized people are on the rise, in Canada and around the world. We at Emmanuel are mindful that these piercing truths are difficult to carry at times. They also intensify our longings and aspirations as a spiritually informed community. 
 
Finally, March is a month when students often start to feel the crunch of assignments, the pressure of end-of-term responsibilities, the expectations and anxieties of graduation. In these experiences, too, there is an aspect of the holy: discovering human limits and new emerging horizons. 
 
Through the month of March, the community at Emmanuel has been experiencing all this and more. I am immensely grateful for the ways we have carried ourselves and one another, grieved over losses, striven for justice, prayed for healing and expanded our minds and hearts. I invite all of you to pay attention to these holy moments and pray together that hope will prevail. 
 

— Principal HyeRan Kim-Cragg