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Our Lady's role in the spiritual warfare

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  OUR LADY’S ROLE IN THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE Mario D’Couto It is quite often the case that the words “war” and “warfare” are used interchangeably although there is a subtle difference. While war refers to the state of an armed conflict characterized by a specific and often prolonged confrontation between two or more opposing groups or nations, warfare on the other hand is the engagement and activities of war, including the theory, tactics and methods used to conduct it. In simple words, think of war as the conflict itself for instance the Vietnam War and warfare as the way it is fought like the guerilla warfare for example and so with that being said, this blogpost/reflection is towards an understanding of Our Lady’s role in the spiritual warfare and why She plays an important role. On the very outset, we need to understand who the enemy is. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers,...
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Going all in!!!

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  GOING ALL IN!!! Mario D’Couto              Going all in! I am pretty sure you may have come across this phrase which basically implies giving your 100% or more in whatever you do, leaving no room for any compromise and while this can be applied in a wide variety of contexts, in this blogpost/reflection, the focus would be on going all in , in one’s relationship with God and why it is necessary. In the Gospel of St. John (John 12:1-9), we see two characters, namely, Mary (the sister of Martha; not the mother of Jesus) and Judas, where one was looking to give (Mary) while the other was looking to take (Judas). When Mary anointed Jesus at the banquet given in His honour, she gave her very best. In fact, she may have laid down her very future when she poured the perfume on His feet since that jar of perfume, may have very well held every hope and dream she had ever had. To understand the meaning behind this, let’s take a look at what life w...
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When productivity goes overboard

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  WHEN PRODUCTIVITY GOES OVERBOARD  Mario D’Couto               Once upon a time, there were 2 woodcutters named Peter and John. They were often at loggerheads over who chopped more wood. So one day, they decided to hold a competition to determine the winner. The rules were simple – whoever chops the most wood in a day wins.              So the next morning – both of them took up their positions in the forest and started chopping away in their fastest possible speed. This lasted for an hour before Peter suddenly stopped. When John realised that there was no chopping sound from his opponent’s side, he thought, ‘Ah ha! He must be tired already!’ and he continued to cut down his trees with double the pace.             A quarter of an hour passed and John heard the opponent chopping again. So both of them carried on synchronously. John was starti...
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Are you creative?

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  ARE YOU CREATIVE? Mario D’Couto                         Can you imagine a world without creativity? What would the world look like if there was no creativity? Well, for all we can expect, it would be pretty boring and dull. There would be no speech, no songs, no tools, no ideas such as love, freedom or democracy. It would be an existence so mechanical and impoverished that none of us would want to be a part of.             To achieve the kind of world we consider human, some people had to dare to break the thrall of tradition. Next, they had to find ways of recording those new ideas or procedures that improved on what went on before. Finally, they had to find ways of transmitting the new knowledge to the generation to come. Those who were involved in this process we call creative. What we call culture or those parts of our selves that we internalized from the social...
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