Solitary Soul

THE HUMAN BODY – AN ANALOGY OF LIVING FOR CHRIST Mario D’Couto             Around some time back, I read a book called “Fearfully and wonderfully made” and as I read it, it brought to my mind the vulnerability and the complexity of human life. We may pride ourselves with technology, advancement in science, lifestyle, entertainment, you name it, but if life itself is not there, all else is of no use. What struck me as I read is that in as much as each part of our body is so carefully designed and created by our dear God, each part is a reflection of some aspect of human reality. For example, if you take the cells of the human body, if one cell or a group of cells do not function as they ought to, it could lead to cancer or think about the human skeletal system, it is what gives shape to our bodies and grows and expands with time or the skins which through the sense of touch help us to understand reality. As St. Paul beau...

QUALITY TIME Mario D’Couto             For some, this quarantine may be a pain but perhaps you may have come across some people who seem to believe that this quarantine is a time of catching up with all the lost time they could not spend with their family due to work or other commitments and I have been thinking about it for a while and what I am about to share is something connected with it. If you have read my previous blogpost/article, “Making use of your time” (  https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2020/04/making-use-of-your-time.html ), I did mention how the quarantine can be a test for our creativity. In this blogpost/article, we are going to see about how we can use this time to strengthen the bonds in our family.             As the saying goes, “Charity begins at home”, the home may perhaps be one of the best places to hone our interpersona...

MYSTERY AND THE HUMAN PERSON Mario D’Couto             In one of my previous articles called, “Suffering: A problem or a mystery” ( https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2013/06/suffering-problem-or-mystery.html ) I had tried to distinguish these two aspects of reality based on the understanding of Gabriel Marcel’s philosophy. A mystery is not like a problem that can be solved; it is to be lived. The human person is to a large extent a mystery and that is precisely because he or she is a being made up of so many things. We, human beings, are not just mere creatures. We are also spiritual, social, psychological, emotional and last but not least, we are all contextual beings. If we were not contextual beings, then life would be meaningless and would not make sense at all.             Louise Hageman goes on to elaborate on this theme in her book, “In the mids...