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Showing posts from 2019

Christmas - A time to reflect

CHRISTMAS – A TIME TO REFLECT Mario D’Couto             Wait a minute, should not Christmas be a time for celebrating, parties or being happy? Well, if I have got you thinking, then I would encourage you to read on. If you have read my previous blogpost/article, “The Season of Christmas” , this blogpost/article is to add what was stated previously. We may just say that this is an extension of what was mentioned earlier in the previous blogpost.             In his book , “Life of Christ” , Bishop Sheen tells us that there are two kinds of philosophies in life, Ø   First the feast then the hangover Ø   First the fast then the feast         Deferred joys purchased by sacrifices are always the sweetest and the most enduring. Christianity begins not with sunshine but with defeat. Sunshine religions (positive psychology/self – he...

The Season of Christmas

THE SEASON OF CHRISTMAS Mario D’Couto             What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Christmas’? Is it parties, sweets, gifts or socializing? Sometime back I had a discussion with a Protestant colleague of mine at work and according to him, Christmas should not be celebrated on 25 th December as there is no written record in the Bible. Fair enough! While there are many theories and explanations as to why 25 th December was chosen which we could probably discuss and debate about, here’s a question that I would like to ask all my separated brethren (Protestants), “If your focus is solely on scripture, is not scripture a fruit of tradition? Did God come down from heaven, bringing a Bible in His hand saying, ‘Here’s the Bible, follow as it is?’” The interesting thing about our separated brethren is that each of them have their own interpretation of the Bible. There’s no one reason as to why one should agree wi...

Small steps, big wins

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SMALL STEPS, BIG WINS Mario D’Couto             Do you feel like sometimes your life is just a drag? That you have to force yourself to go through the motions and yet nothing seems to be working. Probably you may have heard that quote, “Tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean” and while most of us think that success is about achieving this grand goal or at least aspiring for one, we forget that ultimately success is based on the little things that we do each day that takes us one step closer to what we want. Before I go any further, I just want to say that the only person you have to compete with is yourself. If you can improve some aspect of yourself each day, you can then say that you were better today than yesterday. It’s never good to compare yourself with someone else. You can look at someone else and try to learn from them but comparing is something I would NEVER recommend. The reason is because when comparing ‘cre...

Straight from the heart

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STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART Mario D’Couto             Watch this video,             Have you watched the above video? I just celebrated my gift of life about two days ago and when I look back at the years that have gone by, all I can say is that I’m grateful to God Almighty for giving me the gift of life. When one chooses to follow God and live righteously, the journey will be hard but every birthday, everyday and every year is like God asking me to give Him my best and not to give up like the coach in the video. There were times where I felt like just throwing the towel and giving up but as St. Paul writes beautifully in Philippians 1:6, “He who began the good work in you will carry it on to completion,” I am sure the good Lord will indeed finish what He started in me after all did He not know me before He formed in my mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and yes I c...

The Eucharist - What's your motivation?

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THE EUCHARIST – What’s your motivation? Mario D’Couto             To be honest, I was not really sure about the title I wanted to keep for this blogpost/article but I want to say that the inspiration for this blogpost/article is from a podcast by Two Catholic Dudes which I seen recently (these guys have got some amazing stuff if you want to grow in your faith as a Catholic which are available on YouTube). Many of us would have different reasons for praying but in this blogpost/article I will be writing exclusively in the context of the Holy Eucharist. As a Catholic, I believe that the Holy Eucharist is the highest form of worship because we are actually taking part in the paschal sacrifice, where Jesus comes to us in flesh and blood, so that we can share that communion with Him. I also happened to be a musician (there’s a video of me singing and playing the guitar which you will find in the blogpost/article, “Are you a tr...

In His time

IN HIS TIME Mario D’Couto             “What is the time?” I am sure that this a question that we all ask during the day at some moment during the day. But if we were to just remove the article “the” from the question that was just mentioned previously, it would be something like this, “What is time?” Both are not the same and in fact the latter has a very deep meaning.             If I were to ask, “When did time begin!” or “How do we get our idea of what time is or what is not?” one thing we can only say that it is only a “mystery”.             In one of my previous articles/blog posts/articles where I wrote about “Time”, I mentioned that we could understand it as an analogy or a comparison to the breath of God. We are not mere accidents in this world. We are not arbitrary! In Psalm 139:16, it is w...

Luck vs Hardwork

LUCK VS HARDWORK Mario D’Couto             We’ve all been told that they key to achieving our goal is to work hard. Probably, we may have heard it so many times that is has become to a large extent cliche. But the fact remains, if there’s something you want, you’ve got to want it and you got to act. If I am thirsty and I want water, the water is not going to appear to me automatically. I need to get up, get a bottle of water and then I can drink it. But here’s the catch, there are many who work hard and yet for some reason, the outcome does not show up. Are some people luckier than the rest? Maybe! But here’s what I am trying to drive at: just waiting for the lucky moment or the ‘dawn of inspiration’ where everything would magically fall into place is not going to make things work if you have not done your groundwork. I would like to use the example of the farmer. A farmer does not grow his crop by just depending on the f...

Appreciating the dark

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APPRECIATING THE DARK Mario D’Couto             When I look at the stars at night, I am always baffled at its beauty. Science teaches us that each star is a heavenly body. Given the fact that each star is a heavenly body, we can imagine the size of each star. Yet, because of the distance, the stars appear no more than a dot in the sky.             Anyone who has seen stars in the night will vouch for what I am saying. They are all sparkling dots that light up the dark and yet thinking of it, we can say that it is precisely because of this dark background, that we can appreciate the beauty of the stars.             Robin Sharma, in his book, “ Discover your destiny ” , writes the following words, “You are far greater than you have ever dreamed of being. And no matter what you are experiencing in your life...

Courage

COURAGE Mario D’Couto As a young man, Charles Dickens nursed a great ambition to become a writer. But the odds were against him: poverty and very little schooling. He mailed his first manuscript in the dead of the night so that nobody would laugh at him. However, stories after stories were rejected. Thus finally dawned that great day, when one was accepted. Today in terms of fame and recognition, Charles Dickens is second only to William Shakespeare.              Courage is not the absence of fear but going ahead knowing that you will face it. It could be defined as the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables you to face danger or fear, or the vicissitudes of life with self – possession, confidence and resolution. It is that which helps us to face the daunting challenges both anticipated and unexpected, which will occur on our journey. It is only by going through failures that we emerge courageous. Failure bui...