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The Bible and Salvation history

THE BIBLE AND SALVATION HISTORY Cl. Mario D'Couto SDB Introduction : The Bible is a collection of books where each book has been written for a different purpose by different authors at different intervals of time. Given the diversity of time period that exists among the various authors of the Bible, it would be important to ask the question as to who was responsible for bringing all the books of the Bible into one composite unit and at what period of time? There is certainly no clear cut answer to this question although there are pointers which may help us arrive at a deeper understanding of the Bible. The Bible is plainly divided into two categories, the Old and the New Testament and quite often we have many references from the New Testament pointing out or basing its teachings on the Old Testament. Hence, if we have to make sense of the New Testament, we need to understand the Old Testament. In fact, we have to begin with the Old Testament in order to understand the...

Living the Priestly life

LIVING THE PRIESTLY LIFE CL. MARIO D’COUTO SDB             Priesthood is not a competition and never should be. Every priest is a servant of God Almighty but more than a servant he is the one who is called to be the closest to God and hence it is he who is the link between God and the people. In an article written by Fr. Daniel O’ Leary, he speaks about the role of a priest as a ‘mid – wife.’             As the great philosopher Socrates would use the term to illustrate the role of teacher in bringing out the best in each student, the priest too has a similar role. Besides the many responsibilities that a priest has to shoulder, one of his primary tasks is to educate the faithful to the Christian faith. But unlike the traditional way of filling up someone with loads of information as though he or she were a vessel, each person is a candle to be lit. This means that...

Living the fraternal spirit in priestly life

LIVING THE FRATERNAL SPIRIT IN PRIESTLY LIFE Cl. Mario D’Couto Sdb             Christianity is so essentially communal that a priest cannot do justice to its message without experiencing the sharing of a fraternal community. Jesus spent most of His public ministry developing the fraternity of His apostles. He knew how important it was for them to share a mutual concern. His message would be difficult to convey and only the strength of the fraternity would regenerate their tired spirits with enthusiasm and inspiration.             The Greek philosopher Aristotle would say that the human person is a social animal and how true it is. For as a saying goes, “No person can live as an island,” deep within us there is always a void to be filled by another and that is why we are constantly dependent on one another. The famous movie, “Cast Away” beautifully portrays what lone...

Praying, studying and preaching in priestly ministry

PRAYING, STUDYING AND PREACHING IN PRIESTLY MINISTRY CL. Mario D'Couto SDB             Good communication is essential for an effective pastoral ministry. Communication is not the mere ability to talk. It is not merely saying the right words at the right time. We can do all that and still not communicate. People often read a priest’s attitude more than words. They study the way you are saying something to find out why you are saying it or how important it is. The way people respond to you in your ministry is a barometer of effectiveness in communication. It does not happen by talking a lot. Some priests hope that talking a lot would act as a good motivator. But that is not the case.             To be a good communicator, the priest should first of all be credible. Credibility means that there should be a connection between one’s words and behaviour. None can trust an...

Keeping it 'cool' in pastoral ministry

KEEPING IT ‘COOL’ IN PASTORAL MINISTRY CL. MARIO D’COUTO SDB             St. Francis De Sales once said, “A spoon full of honey attracts more flies than a barrel full of vinegar” and that is to say love, sincerity and genuinety are the three characteristics that will take a priest ahead in his pastoral ministry. Often a time, it happens that conflicts and misunderstandings are bound to happen in one’s priestly ministry. There is no doubt that being a human, there is every possibility that a priest can lose his ‘cool.’ Allow me to share some reflections with regard to how to keep ‘cool’ in one’s pastoral ministry as given by Dr. George Manalel V.C. and Fr. John C. Tormey.             According to Dr. George Manalel, the stress and strain of dealing with people and their problems in priestly ministry can cause tensions in the personal life of the priests. Pastoral lea...

Understanding

UNDERSTANDING Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB             Has there been a time when you were trying to solve a problem but unfortunately for some reason, you were not able to come to a solution.  The fact of not being able to understand can be a real frustrating experience and it can even lead to boredom. But what is understanding? Understanding is the fruit of a series of a lot of effort put in order to arrive at a solution. Insights are part of understanding. With regard to how fast an insight would come, there is no guarantee. It could take minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years. But the point is that it comes at its own pace. We cannot force it to come but we can certainly provide those conditions which could facilitate those insights to develop. Hence, developing an insight or the emergence of an insight can be compared to the work of a farmer. A farmer can till the soil, plant the seed and so on. But, by and ...

Thinking Vs Eating

THINKING Vs EATING Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB The ability to think has taken humankind to great heights and yet, we often take it for granted. Thinking is power! For a person to do something a choice has to be made and this choice comes with thinking. With thinking there is a weighing of the pros and cons especially when it comes to making or taking a decision. However, thinking is not just about making decisions only. Thinking has many other facets as well as for instance, mathematical thinking or thinking about finding a solution towards a particular problem and so on. The title of this article, as it is seen, is “Thinking and eating” and perhaps, you may be wandering as to what is the connection between thinking and eating. Well to respond or to understand it more clearly, let us try to understand these two aspects of reality separately.             How does thinking take place? Do we think abstractly or is it possible...

Church and the media

CHURCH AND THE MEDIA Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB             When I think about the Church and the media, what comes to my mind are two worlds coming in contact with each other and if we go to see their history, we can trace back a long route, from being just one simple entity to a complex organization.             Today when people speak about the media, what normally comes on the surface are things like ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Wassup’ and so on. But to narrow down the word ‘media’ to just these few things would be restricting its scope and horizon. Rather, when understood from a broader context, the word ‘media’ actually means ‘to communicate’ and for me, this is what encapsulates all other things such as facebook, twitter and so on. The Church, too, as mentioned before has grown from being a simple unit to a complex organization. But more than just, the Church is the Br...

Interpreting the Word of God (The Bible)

INTERPRETING THE WORD OF GOD (The Bible) Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB             The Bible is and should be understood as a book of books. It is not one single book but a collection of different writings by all God’s people over a period of time through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to see the different approaches to the scriptures from the Catholic and Protestant perspective. A Protestant would want to see the Bible as a book written literally in a way that God wanted it to be. Hence, for such a person, every word in the Bible has to be understood in its literal sense. This is not the case, however, for the Catholic. The Holy Scripture is not to be understood as a science or mathematic textbook nor some kind of fairy tale story or a romantic or a thrilling novel of fiction since it was never meant to be that way. The Bible is itself, as mentioned before, a fruit of tradition and that is why the approach ...

Our Lady and the Holy Rosary

OUR LADY AND THE HOLY ROSARY Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB             There is an intimate link between the Rosary and our Lady for in as much as we speak about the Holy Rosary, one cannot ignore the personhood of our Lady and vice versa. Although apparently it would seem that it is Marian in character, the Holy Rosary is very much a Christo – centric prayer. It is a meditation on the Gospels which is nothing but the life of our Lord. During the recitation of the Rosary, We remember Christ with Mary We learn Christ from Mary We conform ourselves to Christ with Mary We pray to Christ with Mary We proclaim Christ with Mary We listen to Christ with Mary             Our Lady is considered to be the perfect and incomparable model when it comes to the contemplation of Christ, for in as much as She was His perfect disciple, She was also His Mother. In a unique way,...

Science and Christianity

SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB In recent times, it has been observed that science and religion have been against each other for various reasons. In as much as both fields of study depend on reason, the research and opinion from these two fields of study would seem poles apart. So why is this conflict there in the first place? To respond to this question, let us take a brief overview of how these two fields of study came up. Science is a systematic study of reality which is based on verified facts while religion deals with the study of one’s faith. Actually, to be more precise, the word religion can have a broader meaning for in as much as it refers to the study of one’s faith, it also includes other aspects such as rites, customs and traditions. It would be surprising to note that science owes its origin to religion. Some of the first scientists were the monks in the monasteries. If such was the case, then why is it that these 2 fields of study are always ...