An oasis in dry land


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 such thoughts or dreams is good but that is not the reality. Marriage and family life entails a lot of responsibilities and I need not mention them. The point of the matter is that maturity comes by living with the tension.

     So what then does one do when confronted with such situations? One of the most practical ways of transforming everyday activities into spiritual ones is by saying a small prayer before every act and offering it up to the Lord. By living a life this way one would find fulfillment and would not get physically or spiritually 'burned - out'. 

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