Solitary Soul

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 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 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 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...