Solitary Soul

  CRADLE TO THE GRAVE AND BEYOND ….. Mario D’Couto             As Stephen Covey would say, “Begin with the end in mind” , while the season of Christmas is marked with joy, exchange of gifts, visiting friends and family, holidays and all the good stuff, it’s also a time to reflect, a time to reflect the day that Our Blessed Lord came into this world to redeem humankind and while it’s nice to experience the good things about Christmas, it’s important not to loose focus of why Our Blessed Lord came into this world as Man.             To start with, everything that Our Lord said and did ultimately pointed out to the Cross, for the Cross was a symbol of His love and a sign of our redemption. Christ entered into human existence under a form which was not natural to Him as the Son of God. This assuming of a human nature was a humiliation, an emptying, a stripping and a kenos...

  TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Mario D’Couto             We have just celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady and I just thought of taking the opportunity of sharing my thoughts, insights and reflections in regard to it. If you have read my previous blogpost/reflection,  “The Rosary – Getting closer to Jesus through Mary” (if in case you have not read it, here is the link to it,   https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-rosary-getting-closer-to-jesus.html ),  I mentioned that for God, there is no past or future. Everything is eternally present to Him including the complete chain of events which will take place is foreseen by Him. It is by the divine will that Our Lady was chosen to fulfil a specific mission entrusted to Her by the Almighty and through this, it is obvious that this mission is a positive act on the part of God from all eternity. Thi...

  LOOKING BACK Mario D’Couto             Thirty four years completed and still counting. Another new year for me, another new year to discover what the future has in store for me and to reflect and look back on how life has gone by. Each day is a gift and while I know it may sound cliché, it is what it is, an opportunity to grow, to learn something, to make a difference in someone else’s life and so on. Like every other normal person, if I look back, there have been times where I have had my share of highs and lows and while the intensity of such experiences can vary from person to person, I am sure, this is something we can all relate to. Have I figured out everything? Absolutely not! I think I would consider myself a work in progress and probably will be till my last breath but I guess that is what keeps me grounded, that there is a lot more to learn, a lot more to experience to get out of my comfort zone. Do I have any r...