Solitary Soul

AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER ? Mario D’Couto             If you have read my previous blogpost/article/reflection (Human pride and God’s response to it; Religion, religiosity and religious experience; Rise up; and Recovering religious attitudes), you would have probably realized that the theme of the overall message is for those who are already on their spiritual journey and who are already striving along the path to become that person God Almighty has destined them to be. However, the purpose of this blogpost/article/reflection is slightly different. Read on to find out.             While there are many of us who believe in God, go to Church, adhere to the practices of piety and strive to live a good life to the best of our ability, there are many for whom, right or wrong does not matter. In a word, it’s called ‘relativism’ . This is even more dangerous and a greate...

RECOVERING RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES Mario D’Couto             It is one thing to be religious; this is what we are called to be. But, it is another thing to maintain a religious spirit – a spirit which is not so much steeped in the nitty – gritty of rituals, formulas or prayerful incantations but a spirit that really cherishes being in union with God. This can be a challenge given the kind of lives that we may find ourselves in where there is so much to do, that we forget what’s truly important and what matters really most in our lives. Fr. Adrian Van Kaam gives us a practical solution to this problem in his book, “Am I living a spiritual life?” and this blogpost/article/reflection is to address it.             Just as a good ground is necessary to help a seed to germinate, so too a receptive heart is necessary to liberate the religious attitudes hidden in the Word....

RISE UP ! Mario D’Couto        The incident in which Jesus encounters the paralyzed man tells us something which we can all relate with (John 5: 5 – 9). When Jesus saw the man who had been ill, He said,  “Rise up, take up your mat and walk”  (John 5:8). Apparently, this may seem like some physical healing but on reading between the lines, we will find that it is something that it is much deeper, something that touches us in a personal way.                              Whenever Our Blessed Lord healed anyone, He did not just heal the physical or the emotional or the spiritual or the psychological aspect of their lives but He healed them in their entirety. His healing is integral and this is what we see in this incident in the Gospel. When a person is physically handicapped, it is not just that the person goes through physical a...

RELIGION, RELIGIOSITY AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Mario D’Couto             A person who goes for Mass every day and who spends time in prayer for a considerable amount of time is no guarantee to show that he or she is a saint. Nobody who commits suicide or dies is called a ‘martyr’. We give credit to people of virtue for the kind of life that they live and this is what takes me to the point of religious experience.             A religious experience is not a drug – induced state, that is to say, each time one experiences a feeling of being drawn toward religion or feeling good. Such a feeling should never be equated with some sort of spiritual ‘high’, so much so that a person loses touch with reality. The true and genuine meaning of religious experience is to be in love in an unrestricted fashion, we should love everyone without any distinction.   ...