Our Stars Align More Than We Think
It was Fat Tuesday at The Children’s Village, the Dobbs Ferry residential campus for system-impacted youth. It is there that I serve as the Director of Pastoral Care Services, a kind of spiritual guide for these young people.
On that day, the rich smell of paczkis wafted through the air. Our staff delivered the traditional Polish pastries to Christian youth in their cottages, allowing them to enjoy the fried doughnuts before giving up indulgences for Lent.
And in their cottage, our Muslim youth broke the first fast of the Ramadan season. At this first iftar, they shared dates and fresh fruit after a full day without food.
The meals took place on the very same night this year, February 17, as Lent intersected with Ramadan on the Islamic lunar cycle. This once-in-a-generation alignment speaks to the common virtues at the foundations of both belief systems. And both faiths — and all monotheistic religions — present great benefits to children, especially those most in need of order and grounding.
The Children’s Village serves young people who have faced displacement: those involved in the child welfare system, emerging from the juvenile or criminal justice systems, or navigating the immigration system. Though it is always our ultimate goal to help children return to their homes, when youth are at our residential campus, we help them create order and meaning in their lives. We do this through academic and extracurricular activities, athletic teams, as well as our religious programming.
All of these opportunities provide young people with routine. Whether it’s the familiar process of solving an equation, the rhythmic inhale and exhale of running, or the consistent recitation of a prayer, these repetitive actions establish a center of gravity in the body and mind. And when these activities are imbued with deeper spiritual meaning, that effect is magnified.
I am thinking about a young man who came to me when he felt alone. He had shown an initial interest in faith, but had stopped coming to chapel after a few visits. Eventually, he sought me out to speak about his frustrations: he felt a lot of people, including a teacher, had made negative assumptions about him because of who he was. I told him that he was welcome in the chapel. I told him that he was a child of God and made in his image.
He came to understand his inherent worth after coming back to service. That routine, and that belief, changed his attitude. Of the chapel, he told me simply, “I feel good when I’m here.” He has since deepened his commitment and is now an assistant here.
This young man came to me, a chaplain. But he could have had this same conversation with an imam or a rabbi. This is because the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) share a belief in the oneness of God and humanity, and instill this spiritual devotion through sacrifice and discipline.
We spend so much time picking apart the differences between faiths. But whatever we call our God, be it Yahweh or Jehovah or Allah, we all believe in the same God. God is one with us, because we are all made in his image, and therefore we are one with all people — again, because we are all made in his image. That is a message that can resonate with a wayward child, no matter their faith.
And in all three religions, these beliefs are reinforced through rituals of self-restraint. Jews fast during Yom Kippur to atone and seek forgiveness. Muslims fast during Ramadan to bring themselves closer to Allah. Christians forgo favored foods during Lent to understand the suffering of Christ. The common concern is clear: discipline and sacrifice help us connect to our own spirit, our brethren, and to our God.
This routineized self-regulation can anchor young people who feel adrift, like the young man who became a chapel assistant. But it can go further, even saving them from a life on the streets. In the neighborhoods where many of our youth grow up, the appeal of gangs is in fact very similar to the appeal of organized religion: they both offer initiation rituals, community, and identity. Faith, school, family, and teams fulfill these universal desires for belonging and regularity; without them, young people will turn elsewhere for comfort.
With Easter upon us and Lent coming to a close, I am thinking back to that first night. As the stars emerged in the night sky, the Christian and Islamic calendars were aligned. Savory flavors intermingled, and youth of different faiths ate to reaffirm the same commitment: to God, to one another, and to themselves.
Carolyn E. Harrison, MA, MDiv. is a Chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care Services at The Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry.
