Source: The Christian Science Monitor

On December 18, 2000, The Christian Science Monitor reported on a Christian and her appreciation of Ramadan. She focuses on fasting, because it requires self-restraint. As she understands it, fasting is a way for people to turn away from materially satisfying the physical body and instead, turn to spirituality, to "a realm beyond the physical and to the home of the perfect and divine." She believes that the spirituality emphasized during Ramadan is not restricted to one religion or only one time of the year. In a process of self-questioning, she asks whether her self-image is shaped by selfishness and sensuality and whether that is turning her away from God's love. In her experience, she has seen that the less materiality there is in her thoughts, the more she enjoys good health and positive relationships. "So, not only as a gesture of fellowship but because it's good for me, I'm going to observe my own version of Ramadan. While I won't fast from food on the same rigorous schedule or to the same degree as my one billion Islamic neighbors, I will make an extra effort to restrain materialism in my thought and practice this month - including cutting back on shopping and perhaps even on the quantity of food I eat." She says her goal is to be a better person, healer and Christian.