Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

In which God loves parties

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We are having a big children’s party next Saturday, and a family garden party on the 19th June.

I always have a moment of panic before a party. What if….everyone forgets; no one comes; our cooking fails, there’s not enough food. What if it’s a garden party and it rains?

But our parties generally work. Somehow or the other. If it’s a children’s party, it’s not unusual for the children to spontaneously say that it was the best party they have been to. They talk about it for months afterwards. Not bad for haphazard arrangements. Though confession–I have given well over 30-40 children’s parties (we do the occasional Christmas, dead of winter, spring, summer, just because party in addition to birthday parties) and in the early years, I used to check out a stack of children’s party book and research ideas on the internet. Now, I just go with the tried and tested, and relax.

So I went through my moment of panic, and then, as usual, I prayed. And felt all would be well. Then, I wondered if I was being presumptuous. Why should God always ensure that my parties will work, and that I and everyone else would have a good time?

He will, in his mercy, ensure it because God loves parties. Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding, when the planning was faulty and they ran out of wine!! He was accused of loving parties too much, of being a drunkard and glutton.

And heaven, he says, will be a great banquet, to which everyone is invited. Some will be too busy, too greedy, too ambitious to take the time to attend. But the waifs and strays of the world will go, and will have the most splendid time ever.

Amen and amen! Be invisibly present at our parties now, oh Lord, and never let us be too busy to banquet with you.

Elijah

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Elijah
Now Elijah the Tishbite, said to Ahab,
“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,
Whom I serve,
There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years
Except at my word.” 1 Kings 17
The Lord exalts his prophets to the court of princes,
He tells him what is to happen,
Giving him power one cannot fathom.
Which can make him seem crazed.
And how does he equip his prophet
To deal with the electricity
Of the knowledge of what is to come,
The burden of being thought a fool
Which can belong to those who hear the word of God?
After seasons of great visibility,
He moves him to hiddenness.
Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 
“Leave here, turn eastward
and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 
“The Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, Lord?
But I heard you call me to the court of the King
I thought that was my vocation.”
“You did.
I did.
It was.
But I now call you to something different.”
“But the  Kerith Ravine is barren,
It has no food.
No one lives there.
I have heard men tell of the healing power of social support
I have read that it is not good for man to be alone.
I have heard that iron sharpens iron,
That you show each man a slightly
Different diamond-facet of your face,
So that in community, the jigsaw
Of your revelation of yourself is complete
‘Go alone to the Kerith Ravine.’
I might be lonely there.”
“You might, Elijah, you might.
But I will meet you there,
Teach you there,
Comfort you there.
Can I be heard amidst the pomp of Ahab’s court,
The adulation of the people of Israel
The laughter, warmth and happy
 after-echoes of friendship?
When you talk all the time
When people talk to you all the time
When conversation echoes in your ears
And you leave head whirring with yeasty talk,
Can you still hear my voice,
My gentle whisper?
It is more difficult.
You might well be lonely.
But I who created you
And know the secret roots within you
Which neither you nor the world has guessed,
I will be your friend.
I will nourish you,
Teach you of the joy of my presence,
Fill you with laughter as I draw near,
Flow through you in waves of liquid love,
Make you drunk with the wine of my spirit.
I will teach you that though I am a giver
And love to give you the good things I have created
I am, in fact, enough.
And you will know that for sure
When all you have is me.
I am enough.
I am even practical. 
You will drink from the brook,
And I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.
Providing for you though what your people reckon unclean.
  So Elijah went to the Kerith Ravine,
and the ravens brought him bread and meat
and he drank from the brook.
 Some time later, the brook dried up
 Because there had been no rain in the land. 
“Lord, did I not hear you command me to drink from this brook,
And it is now dry.
Lord?  Lord?”
“You did, Elijah,
I did.
And it is indeed now dry.
But, though you may not suspect me of it,
I am, in fact, intensely practical.
When necessary, I speak new words.
Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.
 I have commanded a widow to supply you with food.
Yes, I know it is the centre of Baal worship.
But I will again provide for you through the least
Of those you reckon unclean
Blessing them and you
In the circle of blessing in which I delight. ”
“But I had heard you call me to be a hermit by the brook.
I have grown to rather like it here.
I thought that was my vocation.”
“You did.
I did.
It was.
But today is a new day,
And I come to you with a new word.
As I will keep coming as long as you live
Shaking you with new wisdom, new challenges,
And mercies new every morning.”
So Elijah went to Zarephath.

John Gardner in The Art of Fiction on one’s innate ability to solve technical problems

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Life by the inch is a cinch.  Life by the yard is hard.  John Gardner says, in The Art of Fiction that almost anyone, even a novice writer, can solve a small literary problem, for instance in presenting a character or scene. It’s the entire novel which can daunt. So he advises novices to write their stories inch by inch, scene by scene.

Good advice too for how to live one’s life. 

John Gardner in” The Art of Fiction” on one’s innate ability to solve technical problems

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Life by the inch is a cinch.  Life by the yard is hard.
John Gardner says, in The Art of Fiction that almost anyone, even a novice writer, can solve a small literary problem, for instance in presenting a character or scene. It’s the entire novel which can daunt. So he advises novices to write their stories inch by inch, scene by scene.
Good advice too for how to live one’s life.

Radiating Christ by Cardinal Newman

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Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. 
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. 
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly 
that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours. 
Shine through me and be so in me 
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. 
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! 
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, 
so to shine as to be a light to others; 
the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; 
none of it will be mine: 
it will be You shining on others through me. 
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: 
by shining on those around me. 
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example, 
by the catching force, 
the sympathetic influence of what I do, 
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. 


Isn't this a wonderful prayer? It was one of Mother Teresa's favourites.


Lovely Day, i’nit?


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Whereas other cultures greet each other with the time of day, the amusing English greet each other with a comment on the State of the Day.


It is a beautiful day today in Garsington, Oxfordshire–sunny, blue skies, but not hot, and, as I walked Jake, and tried bravely to jog, everyone, without fail, greeted me with “Lovely day, isn’t it?”


Indeed and indeed!


In which public policy can teach people to recycle


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I have long been a fan of Flylady, who recommends one does not get caught up in the guilt of recycling until one has one’s act together, i.e. is flying.


Well, the South Oxfordshire County Council was having none of this and limited us to one wheelie bin of trash every TWO weeks. So the non-recycling Mathiases had to become recyclers.


It was not easy in the beginning. Our black bags were constantly protruding well over the limits of the wheelie bin, being shredded by magpie, and mice, as were the black bags around the wheelie bin, which the good-natured Council workers finally stopped clearing.


So  we took a trip to the tip to get us caught up. And now, every week, we become more focused recyclers. Have a special trash can for recycling upstairs and downstairs. Recycle more and more. The green wheelie bin is now full with several boxes beside it to be cleared (they will pick up infinite recycling, but not infinite trash). And our trash, most fortnights, fits in our black bin.


Yay!!


How Prayer and the Holy Spirit can Recreate us


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Amazing! I was getting rather tired & losing focus & running on empty by the last week of May. 


We attended a wonderful retreat lead by John Arnott of the Toronto Airport Fellowship for a whole week, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 


The meditation, prayer, and receiving prayer, esp. for the Holy Spirit, has left me so mentally and spiritually refreshed, full of energy and enthusiasm, re-focused, and feeling new-created. Thank you!!