Solitary Soul

Farming and prayer  Mario D'Couto      It is interesting to note that a lot of or practically every parable that our Lord spoke about was from nature. The above title may seem a bit strange and you may probably be wondering as to what it is about. Well, according to me, I find prayer a lot like farming. Just as a farmer has the responsibility to till the ground, sow the seeds and then wait for the rains to do the rest of the job, so too is it the same with prayer.      As a saying goes, "Prayer without hard work is useless," it is quite common to see during examinations, how children begin to pray furiously. In such situations, it seems as though God should become a magician. Prayer is important but without hard work, it can become a bit lopsided. Yet, prayer is something that should be done everyday and not just on occasions. You may also wonder as to why I am writing this way? One thing I am convinced about is that what is within our co...

Hardwork Mario D'Couto      In the book of Genesis, God admonishes our first parents saying that they would earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. This, at prima - facie, may seem to put the whole situation in a negative light. But there is the holistic side to it as well.      In one of my previous articles entitled, "Contemplatives in action" I wrote about how we glorify God through our work. In fact, it is said that the Bible talks about work over 500 times. That is a good indication to see how important work is.        David Bly once wrote, "Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you have not planted." What you believe doesn't amount to very much unless it causes you to wake up from your dream and start working. You cannot just drown yourself into what you could be. The only time a lazy person ever succeeds is when he/she tries to do nothing. A famous old saying says it best, "L...

Fine Tuning Mario D'Couto       As a guitarist, I know how important it is to keep a guitar tuned properly. Anybody who has played a guitar or a violin or for that matter any stringed instrument will vouch for it. Try playing any of these instruments off tuned and the end result is but a cacophony.       Just as every string needs to be tuned in order to play the instrument well, so too is it the same with our lives. Every experience both good and bad contributes to our development as persons. It is up to us to allow the Divine Musician to play His sweet melody in our lives. But that would be possible only if we allow Him; He will not force His way into it.

Words, Actions and Character   Mario D'Couto      There is a nice quotation of St. Anthony of Padua which goes thus, "Preach, preach, preach, at all times, but use words only when necessary." This of course means that our whole lives have to be a sermon.      As the saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words," it is our moral bank that will really help us get ahead in life. In every sphere of life, ethics and morality play a very important role, for it can very well happen that a person can have many things in the world but if he does not know how to use it wisely, it will only bring him his/ her ruin. Philip Brooks said, "A man who lives right and is right has more power in his silence than another who has by his words."        A bankruptcy of character is inevitable when you are no longer able to keep the interest paid on your moral obligations which in other words means that to change one's character means to chan...

An oasis in dry land Mario D'Couto      Living in the civilian world, often a times, I find myself tired and at times a bit distracted too with regard to my spiritual life. But I guess my idea of what the spiritual life should be was a bit too 'idealistic.' Rick Warren makes a nice comment of what spirituality ought to be in one of his books (although I cannot remember at this point of time). He says that one cannot be spiritual by living in an 'ivory tower' which is to say one cannot be isolated. There is no point in it!      True spirituality does not entail living continuously with good thoughts. Living with spiritual thoughts is good but it may not be good enough; that is to say only with spiritual thoughts. Spirituality builds itself on humanity and that is why it is important to be human and be holy. To use an analogy, it is like a couple who before getting married have a very idealistic picture of what their married life would be. Having s...

Bloom ..... where you are planted! Mario D'Couto    Working like any other normal civilian has given me another taste of reality and I must say that it has kept me grounded. Besides, this has enriched my philosophy of life and thankfully I can say that the 10 years of formation that I have had as a seminarian was certainly not a waste of time.    Looking at my colleagues at work, I do find that most of them keep switching jobs. Switching jobs after a considerbale period of time, after having weighed the pros and cons, is worth the take. But to switch jobs after a span of 2 or 3 months may not be the best thing to do. Why?    When a person plants a seed and the plant begins to grow, if one were to uproot it and plant it in another place, the chances are minimal whether the plant would grow or not. In fact, it would be a miracle to think that a plant can grow after it has been uprooted and planted elsewhere. The same applies with one's job and e...

There is no special time for success Mario D'Couto    What I really mean by this is that sometimes in order to succeed, we don't have to wait for a very bright day just to make things work. With regard, to future circumstances or how things would work out, there is very little we can do if not for nothing. But one thing we can rest assure is that although we may not know or be sure of our future, we can be sure of who holds our future.    There is a German proverb which goes thus, "Grow where you are planted. Begin to weave and God will give you the thread." This is like a simplified version of St. Augustine's version "Operative and Co - Operative grace", where operative grace is about God's action in our lives and co - operative grace is our response to that action. It may sound a bit strange but it is true. God's grace is available but He needs our co - operation to actualize it. He will never force us. Whenever Jesus worked a miracle...

Life as an ongoing journey of learning Mario D'Couto      If there is anyone who at any point of time thought to himself or herself that there is nothing more to learn then I think that he or she has missed or rather not become aware of one of the major and crucial aspects of human life and that is the gift of learning. Yes, to learn is indeed a gift. Not many people in the world have the opportunity to experience it. Yet, learning is not something that is restricted to only books. It can happen at any moment and every moment. All we need is an open mind.     There is a nice saying I came across some years back, which goes thus, "A person who is not able to change his or her opinions or is not able to learn new things is like a septic tank where water stagnates and mosquitoes breed. An open mind is like a dam where there is always fresh water flowing." The biggest room is the room for self - improvement.     Learn from the mistakes of others....

There is no special time for success - Part 2 Mario D'Couto    There is no point in waiting for the right moment. That time may never come. It is important to start off with the things you can do.    Anyone who got to the point where they are, had to begin with where they were. The problem is we tend to focus more on what we lack than on what we have. People are always ignoring something they can do and trying to do something they can't. Learning something new may not help the perosn who isn't using what he already knows. Besides, unless if one uses what he or she already knows, there is no guarantee that he is going to put the new thing learned into practice. Success means doing the best we can with what we have.