Solitary Soul

  TO LOVE IS TO RISK Mario D’Couto             In Genesis 2:15-17, it is written, “The Lord God brought the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And He instructed him saying, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will surely die.’” Love is dangerous. It comes with so much potential for pain because true love must involve real choice. The definition of risk is to ‘expose (someone or something valued) to danger, harm or loss.’ To avoid all danger, harm or loss (i.e. risk), God would have had to remove all choice, all risk of people not loving Him but in the process of doing this, He would also have to erase any scenario of true love taking place.              God would have none of this ‘safe love’ because He knows this is an impossibility and in fact,...

  HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR NEW YEAR? Mario D’Couto             Finally, the new year has come and at the very outset, a happy and blessed year ahead to you. While the new year brings with it new opportunities and challenges, the 1 st of January is also the solemnity of Our Lady, Mother of God and while I know I may be one day late, nonetheless I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some thoughts on Our Lady as the Mother of God and how Her example can help us prepare for the year ahead.             Protestants and non-Catholics sometimes can accuse Catholics (which I have personally experienced in my life) saying that all the Marian dogmas and the teachings on Our Lady add up to Mary worship which is clear idolatry, pure and simple some of whom have even compared Her with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar whose worship is described by prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:55-...