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...