Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Archives for February 2011

Quest for Joy-4. An Hour in St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Rome. Pre-Raphaelite Art

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Today was a glorious day. We visited the little known but glorious American Episcopal Church, St. Paul Within the Walls, with Byzantine inspired mosaics by Burne-Jones, and tiles from William Morris. 


I first read about it in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s introduction to the gorgeous exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite paintings from his private collection. On a school trip to Rome, he slipped away, and spent the day in this American Church, getting into trouble for returning with little knowledge of Classical Rome, but much of the Pre-Raphaelites. How English!!–and arguably, how sane!


I next saw Burne-Jones paintings from this project in a wonderful exhibition in the Ashmolean I’ve reviewed here http://wanderingbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com/2010/11/pre-raphaelites-in-italy-ashmolean.html.


And today, I saw the real thing. Pictures from the Victorian Web. My iPhone couldn’t do justice to it. 


mosaic by Burne-Jones


“The great mosiac of the rear wall represents Christ the Lord in glory. At the very top against the blue of the sky is glimpsed a glittering vision of angels. Below sits the majestic figure of Christ, enthroned upon the cherubim and seraphim. In Christ’s left hand he holds the orb of the earth and His right hand is upraised in blessing. From his feet issue the streams of living water and a rainbow is ’round about the Throne’ (Revelation 4).  (St. Paul’s within the Walls, pp. 2-3).

mosaic by Burne-Jones
The Tree of Forgiveness
“On the second arch over the choir, Burne-Jones has represented the Tree of Forgiveness. Christ, hands outstretched powerfully, is supended before the green-leaved Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. On one side stands Adam and the other Eve with her firstborn. The thistles from which spring the lily symbolize the hardness of man’s labor from which springs his divine possibilities, concretized in the story of the Annunciation. Under the scene is written in Latin: ‘In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33).” (St. Paul’s within the Walls, p. 2)





mosaic by Burne-Jones
The Heavenly Choir





mosaic by Burne-Jones
The Angels and the Waters of Life




mosaic by Burne-Jones

mosaic by Burne-Jones
Living Waters Flowing from the Throne




We had the church to ourselves, and it was glorious. What a gift. What peace and glittering beauty.


I found myself praying to have my soul flushed out and then filled with those rivers from the throne of life.


See also Quest for Joy–3 Fireflies. 




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Update

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Blogger on break for half-term.
Will be back to daily blogging on Sunday 27th Feb.

A week in Rome

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We are here for the week. Zoe has worked very hard this term with her G.C.S.E’s; Irene’s worked superlatively hard in Year 7, far beyond the call of duty. Her work is mainly projects, and she produces little well-researched books on each of them. Roy worked hard clearing much of a back-log of years of procrastinated family, personal and business projects, and I over-blogged. So we thought a week away would renew our energy and zest for the next 6 week term.

“A change is as good as a rest” is one of my life-mottoes. I really believe it. It refreshes and enlarges one’s perspective as much as a beach holiday would do.

We’ve mainly come here for Renaissance art and architecture, but will see some stuff from the ancient world, of course.

So today, the Pantheon. An amazing dome, even though the bronze covering it was looted by the Byzantine emperor, and taken to Constantinople, and the interior bronze was looted, a 1000 years later by the Pope.

That lovely eye is called the oculus, and it sends an eerie shaft of sunlight into the building.

Just behind the Pantheon was the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome’s only Gothic church, and one of the most beautiful and enchanting churches I’ve ever seen.

The ceiling was  what is called a Giotto blue, with gold stars, and lavish paintings. It was like fairyland, like an enchanted world, like Paradise.

Here are some public domain images (I just had my iPhone.)

Isn’t it lovely? Unfortunately, I made a basic travel error, and packed on preconceptions rather than weather forecasts. Rome, hot, right? Wrong!

And so I am fighting a monster cold. Prayers for health will be gratefully received.

We really enjoy travelling in Mediterranean countries. Italians, Spaniards and Greeks seem to me like Indians–with lighter skin. Voluble, excitable, loud, gregarious, fun-loving.

My French tutor, who is a real Parisian intellectual,  actor and director, and playwright who has adapted novels for the stage told me he would never go to Italy. Why? Because the manners of the Italians who come to Paris are “tres mauvaise.” Why? They talk so loudly? Is that necessarily bad-mannered, I ask shame-facedly. (Our family gets involved in animated discussions and arguments, which, yes, get loud wherever we are!) It is impolite, he says primly.

Have you been to Rome before? he asks. (Our rule is French only, and I am sure our hour of conversation amuses him). “Yes, 25 years ago.” “Oh, it must have changed a lot,” he says.

But Rome is the eternal city, and the Pantheon has not changed.

Neither I hope has the Vatican,which we will visit tomorrow, if I can shake off this monster cold.
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Libya, Tunisia, Democracy, Christianity and Wealth

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Ancient Roman Senate




I am following the Arab protests from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Bahrain. Reading of Gaddafi firing on unarmed protesters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/feb/11/guardian-twitter-arab-protests-interactive



Many of the protesters want democracy. Though some can become “more equal than others,” in Orwell’s famous phrase, in democracies (or indeed in any human system where some will be born smarter, stronger, more gifted than than the others, or be born to the those who are cleverer, richer than the rest)  democracy may well be the least flawed political system there is.


                                                                         * * *


We are in Rome for the week with 4 laptops and a pile of books. We are here to see Michaelangelo, Raphael, art, architecture, and rest–a la a family of driven intellectuals. And I am on my wireless laptop, while Roy gets take-away kebabs.


I am reading about Roman democracy–the second democracy in the world, I believe (after the Greeks). 


In 509 B.C., the people of Rome rose up against the last tyrannical Etruscan monarch, Tarquin whose son raped a Roman noblewoman Lucretia, who then committed suicide. Her husband, along with Brutus led an uprising that led to the establishment of a Roman republic.


The republic was to last nearly 500 years, and was a surprisingly modern and democratic form of government. The Senate, representing the patrician families, elected two Senators from their numbers, while the people elected two tribunes, and were allowed to veto the election of senators they disapproved of. 


The city prospered.
                                                                            * * * 


When you read of Mohammed Bouazizi, the dutiful, beleagured, harassed young fruit seller, whose self-immolated triggered the current wave of Arab protests, you so want things to improve in the Arab world, perhaps through democracies led by visionary leaders


or–I am a passionate Christian, after all–


through the hope-filled joyous Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
                                                                                      * * *


John Wesley on the connections between Christianity and the wealth of nations.

Wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches!

And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now, if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself and, of consequence, cannot stand, cannot continue long among any people; since, wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation.

John Wesley preached this sermon in Dublin in 1789. 

Christianity does improve the living conditions of nations–though, in a typical Hegelian dialectic, wealth does threaten true Christianity.

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Transfiguration, Jesus Reveals his Glory, Matthew 17, Day 39, Feb 18th, Blog Through the Bible Project.

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Carl Bloch, Tranfiguration

Matthew 16
Jesus Predicts His Death
 21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Peter, swollen headed from his previous commendations, takes charge.
NIV notes, The beginning of a new phase in Jesus ministry. Instead of teaching the crowd in parables, he now concentrates on preparing the disciples for his coming suffering and death.
 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Lol! What is amusing is that, just in the previous paragraph, Peter had been told that the Father had revealed the truth of Jesus’ identity to him, and that he was the rock on which Jesus would build his church.
Now, he is rebuked as Satan, a stumbling block, who did not have in mind the concerns of God, but human concerns.
And that is what we humans are. At one moment, we are filled with revelation and insight, and realize we are blessed. The next moment we are impetuous and presumptuous, and have in mind human concerns, not the concerns of God, and are very like Satan in the things we prize. 
ESV notes–In the context of the Jewish master-disciple relationship, it would have been audacious for a disciple to correct his master, let alone rebuke him. Peter, like most of his fellow Jews, resisted the idea that the Messiah must suffer, even though it is found in the OT, Psalms, Isaiah, Zechariah.
Satan, a loan word from Hebrew, meaning adversary or accuser.

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For me, the hardest sentence in Scripture.
 Saying No to self, shouldering the instrument of the death of the insistent demanding rowdy self and its desires is the only way to follow Christ.
The cross you carry is that of your own death, of doing exactly what you feel like (in terms of, let’s say, eating, control of temper, use of free time, use of money…)
This verse is one I need to be reminded of every day. 
And that is why it is good to read and study Scripture. Because, left to ourselves, we forget.
ESV notes–Satan attempts to hinder Jesus mission through Peter who does not understand that Jesus’ messianic role must include suffering and death.
25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
Those who want to ensure the pleasantness of their lives in every detail, in fact, lose the pleasantness of it.
Those who lose their rights to the gratification of every desire for the sake of following the teachings of Jesus, in fact, find life.
ESV notes–Verses 25-27 each beginning with For (Greek Gar) provide three related reasons why a disciple must let go of his earthly life, and take up his cross. 
26 For what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
We will be rewarded or ACCORDING TO WHAT WE HAVE DONE. Or so this verse says. And so, it profits us nothing to gain everything for a finite time, and then lose our souls for eternity.

   28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Matthew 17

The Transfiguration
 1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
This is the vision I would love to see. Jesus transfigured before me. His face shining like the sun. His clothes as white as the light.
Jesus, both our friend, the lamb of God, and the radiant one, whose face shines like the son, clothed in light.
His transfiguration was a reminder of the glory he had before he became man, and a preview of his future exaltation.

 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
I love this–Peter is somebody who first talks, then thinks. Impulsive, impetuous, him with his foot in his mouth. His first reaction to the revelation of the glory of Christ is to say something, do something. And so, he reassures Christ that it is good that he is there to take charge at this critical juncture. And then offers to build shelters for these spiritual beings. 
ESV notes–Moses and Elijah represent the law and the prophets, which witness to Jesus as the Messaih, the one which fulfills the Old Testament.
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The words which change everything. When we hear the father say, This is my daughter, whom I love. With her, I am well pleased.
And why does he say these words over us? Because we belong to Christ. We are grafted into Christ. We are in Christ, molecules in his bloodstream.
ESV notes–The bright cloud is reminscent of the cloud of God’s presence and glory in the OT, Exodus, and 1 Kings 8, 10-13
God the Father’s public endorsement of Jesus, his beloved son, echoes that given at Jesus’ baptism.
 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Terrified with a sense of awe at the presence and majesty of God.
And these are the great words which Jesus always speaks to us. Get up, don’t be afraid. 

 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
The Messianic secret. There is in Jesus, a continual waiting for the right time, the kairos time–the appointed moment in the purposes of God–rather than the chronos time, time as we know it. 

 10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
They understand spiritual things literally, not metaphorically, a continual risk when dealing with the things of God.

 11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
ESV–Understanding is a key theme of Matthew’s Gospel. 

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Transfiguration, Jesus Reveals his Glory, Matthew 17, Day 39, Feb 18th, Blog Through the Bible Project.

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Carl Bloch, Tranfiguration
Matthew 16
Jesus Predicts His Death

 21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Peter, swollen headed from his previous commendations, takes charge.
NIV notes, The beginning of a new phase in Jesus ministry. Instead of teaching the crowd in parables, he now concentrates on preparing the disciples for his coming suffering and death.
 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Lol! What is amusing is that, just in the previous paragraph, Peter had been told that the Father had revealed the truth of Jesus’ identity to him, and that he was the rock on which Jesus would build his church.
Now, he is rebuked as Satan, a stumbling block, who did not have in mind the concerns of God, but human concerns.
And that is what we humans are. At one moment, we are filled with revelation and insight, and realize we are blessed. The next moment we are impetuous and presumptuous, and have in mind human concerns, not the concerns of God, and are very like Satan in the things we prize. 
ESV notes–In the context of the Jewish master-disciple relationship, it would have been audacious for a disciple to correct his master, let alone rebuke him. Peter, like most of his fellow Jews, resisted the idea that the Messiah must suffer, even though it is found in the OT, Psalms, Isaiah, Zechariah.
Satan, a loan word from Hebrew, meaning adversary or accuser.

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For me, the hardest sentence in Scripture.
 Saying No to self, shouldering the instrument of the death of the insistent demanding rowdy self and its desires is the only way to follow Christ.
The cross you carry is that of your own death, of doing exactly what you feel like (in terms of, let’s say, eating, control of temper, use of free time, use of money…)
This verse is one I need to be reminded of every day. 
And that is why it is good to read and study Scripture. Because, left to ourselves, we forget.
ESV notes–Satan attempts to hinder Jesus mission through Peter who does not understand that Jesus’ messianic role must include suffering and death.

25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Those who want to ensure the pleasantness of their lives in every detail, in fact, lose the pleasantness of it.
Those who lose their rights to the gratification of every desire for the sake of following the teachings of Jesus, in fact, find life.
ESV notes–Verses 25-27 each beginning with For (Greek Gar) provide three related reasons why a disciple must let go of his earthly life, and take up his cross. 
26 For what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
We will be rewarded or ACCORDING TO WHAT WE HAVE DONE. Or so this verse says. And so, it profits us nothing to gain everything for a finite time, and then lose our souls for eternity.

   28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Matthew 17

The Transfiguration

 1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
This is the vision I would love to see. Jesus transfigured before me. His face shining like the sun. His clothes as white as the light.
Jesus, both our friend, the lamb of God, and the radiant one, whose face shines like the son, clothed in light.
His transfiguration was a reminder of the glory he had before he became man, and a preview of his future exaltation.


 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
I love this–Peter is somebody who first talks, then thinks. Impulsive, impetuous, him with his foot in his mouth. His first reaction to the revelation of the glory of Christ is to say something, do something. And so, he reassures Christ that it is good that he is there to take charge at this critical juncture. And then offers to build shelters for these spiritual beings. 
ESV notes–Moses and Elijah represent the law and the prophets, which witness to Jesus as the Messaih, the one which fulfills the Old Testament.
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The words which change everything. When we hear the father say, This is my daughter, whom I love. With her, I am well pleased.
And why does he say these words over us? Because we belong to Christ. We are grafted into Christ. We are in Christ, molecules in his bloodstream.
ESV notes–The bright cloud is reminscent of the cloud of God’s presence and glory in the OT, Exodus, and 1 Kings 8, 10-13
God the Father’s public endorsement of Jesus, his beloved son, echoes that given at Jesus’ baptism.
 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Terrified with a sense of awe at the presence and majesty of God.
And these are the great words which Jesus always speaks to us. Get up, don’t be afraid. 

 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
The Messianic secret. There is in Jesus, a continual waiting for the right time, the kairos time–the appointed moment in the purposes of God–rather than the chronos time, time as we know it. 

 10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
They understand spiritual things literally, not metaphorically, a continual risk when dealing with the things of God.

 11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
ESV–Understanding is a key theme of Matthew’s Gospel. 

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Quest for Joy-3. Fireflies

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One of my fond magical, almost mystical memories of living in Williamsburg, Virginia was sitting on my porch in the evenings, watching the fireflies in the cool dusk. They are magical things, and fill me calm, joy and wonder.

John Ruskin, the amazing Victorian polymath is one of my favourite writers. He abruptly ends his autobiography, Praeterita (written against all odds, against the advice of his carers, when the synapses of his brain were not working well, and he was sinking into adrenal exhaustion, nervous collapse, and indeed the dementia which clouded his last decade) with a glorious description of fireflies.


“Fonte Branda I last saw with Charles Norton, under the same arches where Dante saw it. We drank of it together, and walked together that evening in the hills above, where the fireflies among the scented thickets shone fitfully in the still undarkened air. How they shone! moving like fine-broken starlight through the purple leaves. How they shone! through the sunset that faded into thunderous night as I entered Siena three days before, the white edges of the thunderous clouds still lighted from the west, and the openly golden sky calm behind the Gate of Siena’s heart, with its still golden words, ‘Cor magis tibi Sena pandit,’ and the fireflies everywhere in sky and cloud rising and falling, mixed with the lightning, and more intense than the stars.”


The disjointed conclusion of his beautiful, intense and revelatory book reminds one of Ruskin’s mind, “fireflies everywhere,  mixed with the lightning, and more intense than the stars.”
                                                                        * * *


Fireflies also remind me of a novel I read as a teenager The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

It has a strange sequence of an all night gambling match on Egdon Heath between the Red Man, Diggory Venn and Damon Wildeeve to regain the inheritance of Thomasina whom Diggory Venn and Wildeeve has married.

When it gets too dark, Diggory grabs fireflies, puts them in a bottle, and continues gambling by their light. It is surely among the strangest scenes in fiction, the intense gambling– love and greed at stake–on a midsummer night, by the light of captured fireflies
* * *

See also, Quest for Joy 1–Glory be to God for Winged Things

Quest for Joy 2–A bluebird in every tree

And a short blog post on Ruskin’s mind http://thegoodbooksblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/john-ruskin-mind-as-bright-as-fireflies.html
Wikio

 

The Dream Play, August Strindberg

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Saw this this evening at the Oxford Playhouse. Well, largely because the charming young French actor and director who tutors me and Zoe in French (a whimsical endeavour at fluency on my part) was acting in it.


I love Ibsen, and have probably read all his plays one after another in my twenties. I adore Bergman’s movies too, and again have probably seen all of them. Seen some Strindberg. So I do do Scandinavian gloom!


But I detested The Dream Play. Not the acting or the production, which was ingenious, strange, beautiful, haunting, and well acted. Visually almost stunning as many recent productions I’ve seen at the Playhouse have been


I found the play itself depressing with an unnecessarily bleak view of the sadness and futility of all human endeavour. 


The Dream Play, like Ibsen’s plays (The Doll-House in particular), had some early feminist ideas, with marriage and domesticity seen as a trap in which sprightly women wilt, but which they cannot leave for fear of losing their children. 


There was an air of threat and menace. Its bleak phantasmagoric atmosphere was threatening, and I found myself longing to escape, to pray, to breathe in the reassurance of Christ, to remember the goodness of God and the joy of life, to once more soak in the stability and rootedness of faith.


The Oxford Playhouse has a mission of having at least a quarter of its productions experimental. These can be excellent–or dreadful.


We had season tickets in 2005 when the experimental plays were rather dreadful. I walked out of a ridiculous production of The Birds, dragging my family with me, asked to see the Manager and asked for a refund or exchange on our tickets–the production was that bad!!  The somewhat bemused manager acquiesced!!


Nonetheless, I am very fond of the Oxford Playhouse which is layered with memories of fab plays I saw there for the first time as an undergraduate.


It was among the reasons I wanted to return to Oxford to live here permanently. Just imagine: A small town with world-class theatre, ballet, opera, museums, libraries…within a 15 minute drive from my house.


Oxford has been a blessing to us! 




Wikio