Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires
Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art
Christ in glory in front of the Heavenly Jerusalem, (Mosaic, Burne-Jones, St. Paul’s within the walls, Rome)
I listened to the entire Bible on my iPhone this year—the NIV’s dramatized edition– as I walked the country trails around Garsington, Oxfordshire.
And the year dies spectacularly as one walks listening to Revelation—chilling, majestic, dramatic. [Read more…]
The High Cross at FFald-y-Brenin
1 When Christian celebrities fall, the proper response is mourning.
I had an extraordinary experience this summer. I heard an Anglican charismatic vicar Mark Stibbe give THE BEST sermon I ever heard—which was, oddly, on writing. He prayed for an impartation of the spiritual gift of writing, and I believe I received it. I came back full of excitement, and wrote much and well.
TEN days later, this man, genuinely insightful and spiritually gifted, leaves his wife and family for another woman, and leaves ALL ministry. His forthcoming book was cancelled. I recently spent a couple of hours listening to his videos, and reading a book he’d written. Stibbe knows God, understands God. Oh, would the church find a way to extend grace to those who publicly fall, for all of us fall—privately. [Read more…]
1 Fitocracy—a wonderful online fitness MMORG game (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game.)
It was founded by a couple of Asian-American kids who got addicted to playing MMORG games like War of Warcraft or Everquest where the character gains “powers” and grows more powerful the longer you play. And while their avatar grew ever stronger, they themselves grew ever more unfit.
Dick Talens who weighed 230 pounds in high school says, “I remember one summer I’d literally wake up in the morning, play Everquest, eat a few times in the day, and just go to bed. And that’s all I did.” [Read more…]
Azure window, Dwerja, Gozo, Malta.
Merry Christmas, friends!!
And here’s a peek at my year!
Feb—Cancer (false) scare, ultrasound, biopsy, and I re-learn the great lesson, “Do not be afraid.” A restful half-term break on Barton by the Sea, by the New Forest .
In March: enjoyed a day at Tearfund’s Headquarters, listening to the CEO Matthew Frost, tell us about the real hunger games.
April—Istanbul. I am impressed by the persistence of beauty, despite all the devastation of the past; wonder if heaven will look a little bit like the Hagia Sophia; and muse on the dangers of theocracies. My favourites: The Blue Mosque, The Hagia Sophia of course, The Topkapi Palace, and the amazing Bosphorus Cruise, in the narrow strait between Europe and Asia.
Later that month, Patricia Bootsma, leader of Catch the Fire, Toronto, birthplace of the Toronto Blessing, prophesies out of the blue about my daughter Zoe, who was not there, and of whose existence she did not know. It changes Zoe’s outlook on life, and infuses much hope into our hearts.
Zoe later does brilliantly in her A-S exams, all A’s and 100% in Religion. She plans to read Theology at University, and has had several excellent university offers so far.
June finds us on the road again. A rhythm of six sedentary weeks of reading and thinking, followed by an active week or two of adventure and travel suits us best. (We are making the most of being self-employed!) We visit the amazing Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, and wild, remote County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.
July – A visit from Roy’s brother Jeph, sister-in-law Kaaren and their bevy of charming children. And a course in the Christian History of Oxford at Wycliffe College, the local Anglican theological college. I was surprised by the immense impact that theology had on this city. I learn about John Wesley’s call to stand apart from a generation of triflers; agree that Calvinism is clever, but wonder what Jesus would have made of it; and conclude that if our theology makes us cry, our theology is too small.
August—We buy a motor home, and set off on an epic trip to Denmark, through England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. We visited Haderslev, Hans Christian Andersen’s birthplace Odense, and Copenhagen, where I loved the Scandinavian prehistory section in the National Museum of Denmark.
I enjoyed listening to Heidi Baker at River Camp, and, especially, Mark Stibbe’s brilliant talk on writing. And then, the spiritual smorgasbord at the Revival Alliance conference (Heidi Baker, John Arnott, Bill Johnson), in which dozens of eyewitnesses, including my children, and a friend of ours, an Oxford-educated Physics teacher, claimed they saw diamonds materialize, as witness claim they do at Bill Johnson’s church, Bethel, in Redding, California. My take-away (literally) was the ten-minute praise timer recommended by Carol Arnott which beeps every ten minutes, reminding you to praise and worship God. I love using it.
October—I enjoyed a retreat at His Place, a Christian retreat centre at Saarland, Germany, and love Luxembourg.
December—We visit Malta. Highlights—the bay where St. Paul was shipwrecked; Malta’s Neolithic temples; Ramla Bay, and the magical Azure Window in Gozo.
Other highlights—Listening to the Bible in a Year, discovering Audible and listening to numerous books on tape as I walk, and beginning to use AntiSocial, an app which locks me out of the web when I write. I am slowly getting back into the groove of “real” writing, after taking 4 years out to work on the family business, and my blog has been a source of joy, pleasure and personal growth.
Henry Nouwen wrote, “To celebrate life together, to be together in community, to simply enjoy the beauty of creation, the love of people, and the goodness of God—these seem faraway ideals. There seem to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be.” We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year of being where your heart wants to be. And “Amor, salud y pesetas y el tempo para gustarlos …” Love, health and pesos and the time to enjoy them!!
Azure window, Dwerja, Gozo, Malta.
And so I walk by the beach, which for me is holy ground near Malta’s stupendous Azure Window. And I say, “Oh Lord, you speak to me so clearly by the ocean. You give me such good ideas. You pour insight and revelation into me. You have already done so this holiday. I can’t expect you to speak to me with good ideas and insight and direction every time I walk by the beach, can I? I have experienced so much of your kindness already. I do not deserve more goodness.”
And I felt God chuckle, and say, “Silly! It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s an infinity game. My goodness is unlimited. There is no budget.”
“Just because I blessed you yesterday does not mean I will not bless you today. That I blessed you last year, and the year before and the year before–does not mean that I won’t bless you next year. Blessings in my kingdom are infinite. They never run out. They are fresh each day like manna.”
And I repent for the fear that my streak of blessing might run out.
Why should I fear when I live in the arms, beneath the beating heart of Abba, my Father?
* * *
A series of shallow oval pools, each draining into the one below. Dwerja, Gozo, Malta.
The rocks in Dwerja Bay are weathered into a lunar landscape.
There were numerous fossils embedded in the rock.
The “craters” nearer the sea are fill with water.
Lunar landscape, with the sea in the background.
The sea entering a cave
A blow-hole that is fed by the cave — much more impressive in real life than this photo.
Sunset, Dwerja Bay, Gozo, Malta.
Mdina’s Cathedral of St. Paul, viewed from outside the old city’s protective wall.
We enjoyed the architecturally superb walled town of Mdina yesterday. I particularly enjoyed the winding streets. How intimidating to be an invader here, and turn a blind corner, into armed opponents. [Read more…]
Nave, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. (sorry about photo quality — no flash or tripods allowed.)
St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valetta is impossibly ornate. It was the immensely wealthy Church of the Knights of Malta (chosen from Europe’s leading aristocratic families. Each family had to commit to give the Knights a third of their annual income, and all the Knight’s property upon his death). The Knights of Malta were warrior-medical-monks, originally formed to care for injured crusaders.
The gravestones which form the floor of the church are inlaid in the richest marble and porphyry in pietre dure. The ceiling is covered with frescoes.
It has eight chapels, each belonging to one of the eight “langues” or national groups which made up the Knights of Malta, and of course each tried to outdo the other. These were Provence, Auvergne, France, Castile and Leon, Aragon, Italy, England and Germany, who each lived in separate Auberge, like Oxford Colleges. (This European unity is now mimicked in the European Union, which is a great idea, in my opinion.)
The most moving part of the chapel was Caravaggio’s dynamic, brilliant, moving painting of the beheading of John the Baptist, which bought him membership in the Knights of Malta.
The Beheading of Saint John Caravaggio 1608 ()
However, not long after the induction which brought him delight and pride, his violent, ungovernable temper led him to attack another Knight, which led to imprisonment (without his paints). Being unable to paint led him to desperation and near-madness, and an escape. He was defrocked as a Knight of Malta in front of his masterpiece which he had donated with such pride, signing his name in John’s spilled blood.
He moved to Naples and died young after more trouble and more brawls (perhaps due to his mercurial manic-depressive temperament, perhaps due to the lead in his paints, which causes depression, personality changes and mental illness, such as plagued Goya and Van Gogh
* * *
And now some images, and observations by Roy
Here are some pictures: First, the main altar.
View of the altar from the right, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Moses with the 10 commandments. St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
View of the altar, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Any empty spaces on the walls and ceiling are covered with gilt.
Gilded emblems on a wall, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
One of many gilded ceilings in the side chapels, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
A gilded panel fills empty wall space, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
A distant view of Caravaggio’s crucfixition, through the archs of three side chapels, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. (On the right, one of the very few depictions of women, but note the weapons of war, and reminders of death.)
The floor is literally coverws with tomb slabs, with reminders of mortality. Unfortunately, chairs and carpet runners laid out on the floor on obscure many of them.
One of the many inlaid marble floor panels depicting death, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Inlaid marble floor panel showing an elephant, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Floor panel, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Ramla Bay, Gozo
I enjoyed walking today by Ramla Bay in Malta, supposed to be one of the best beaches in the Mediterranean. Oh abundance!–jellyfish on the beach, shells, and a scatter of brilliant marble-like pebbles, which, with a few swishes in a rock tumbler, would reveal their sleek preciousness.
Pebbles left by the retreating waves.
Pink jellyfish, Ramla Bay, Gozo.
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