Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The Path of the Righteous Shines Ever Brighter, Prov. 4, Blog Through the Bible Project

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Proverbs 4

Get Wisdom at Any Cost
 


















1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; 
   pay attention and gain understanding. 
2 I give you sound learning, 
   so do not forsake my teaching. 
3 For I too was a son to my father, 
   still tender, and cherished by my mother. 
4 Then he taught me, and he said to me, 
   “Take hold of my words with all your heart; 
   keep my commands, and you will live. 
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; 
   do not forget my words or turn away from them. 
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; 
   love her, and she will watch over you. 
There is protection in seeking divine wisdom

7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. 
The beginning of wisdom is to value and treasure wisdom.   Though it cost all you have, get understanding. 
It is worth spending much money, to gain spiritual wisdom
.8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you; 
   embrace her, and she will honor you. 
9 She will give you a garland to grace your head 
   and present you with a glorious crown.”
In normal circumstances, the wisdom which comes from God leads to exaltation, honour and glory.

 10 Listen, my son, accept what I say,
   and the years of your life will be many.
11 I instruct you in the way of wisdom
   and lead you along straight paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
   when you run, you will not stumble. 
God’s wisdom enables one to metaphorically proceed in a straight line without stumbling or tripping.
13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
   guard it well, for it is your life.
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
   or walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
   turn from it and go on your way.
16 For they cannot rest until they do evil;
   they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
17 They eat the bread of wickedness
   and drink the wine of violence.
 18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
   shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
In the normal course of events, the life of the righteous grows from strength to strength–in ever-increasing brightness.
19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
   they do not know what makes them stumble.
Sinners find obstacles they do not understand in their paths.
Esv notes–The doctrine of the two ways. A choice between entering the way of wisdom and the way of folly. The path taken will determine the outcome of one’s life.
 20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
   turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
   keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
   and health to one’s whole body.
Following the counsels of wisdom enhance bodily health.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
   for everything you do flows from it.
Watch your heart. The bitterness or unforgiveness in it. The things in your heart which you might long for more than you long for God. The idols in your heart which consume your thoughts. 
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
   keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
   fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
   and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
   keep your foot from evil.
Keep focused. Avoid evil.

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Always Query Received Wisdom

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Smart parking?


One thing Roy and I have in common is an instinctive, and ingrained healthy distrust of received wisdom. 


I think we particularly enjoyed our week in Rome because we ignored the guidebook’s advice on driving in Rome: Don’t dream of it.


Jamie, a friend of ours who is a confident driver, drove in Rome and said it was surprisingly compact.


And so we found it. With the satnav we got Roy for his birthday, we were able to get to places in far less time than we would have spent figuring out public transportation , walking to it, and walking from it to our destination. 


Another pleasant surprise was parking. Spots outside the Vatican Museums, 4 euros for 8 hours. Wow! Free spots just outside the Colosseum, and indeed every church we visited.


Given that I have a whole lot less energy that I should, I was pleased that I was able to conserve it for seeing Rome’s wondrous sights. 


 In fact, we drive everywhere, Oxford, London, Paris, and Athen when we went there, and are generally lucky in finding parking (though not in Athens, where we were always leaving our car where we shouldn’t, and were always told off in voluble Greek. No tickets though!


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Quest for Joy-8. Become like Little Children

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Me, and my daughter Irene, aged 3. Notice a secret to Irene’s happiness in her fat paw: chocolate!

Matthew 18

 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 
Learn to let your face show what you really feel.
Do not contort it into a smile
When you see your enemy pass,
And inwardly shrink.
Smile at those you like,
otherwise, nod.
Be honest. 
If you had a dreadful Christmas,
a dud holiday,
say so.
If you see injustice,
say “It is not fair.”
Do not let fear constrain you. 
Slow down.
See the full moon yellow in the sky,
the orange gerbera,
the variations of pebbles.
Whatever you do, 
do it with all your heart.
Never rush.
If adults say “Hurry up”
Say, “Wait.”
Delight again
in a bar of chocolate,
bubbles sparkling iridescent.
Grin when you are happy,
Cry when you are sad,
And forgive those who have made you sad. 
Keep short accounts.
Time is for having fun.
Enjoy motion,
Running, swimming, splashing.
Don’t worry too much about saving.
Your Daddy will give you more.
Remember to thank God who made everything,
and gave you, 
as much goodness
as your little hands 
can grasp.  

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Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself.

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Here’s a wonderful sonnet from Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.
Prayer
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
(from Mean Time [Anvil, 1994])

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Quest for Joy-6 Raphael, The School of Athens.

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Raphael, The School of Athens



Nothing prepares you for the impact of this magnificent fresco which takes up a whole wall . We gazed at it both yesterday and today. 


In the foreground is Michaelangelo in this famous boots leaning on a marble block. 



 Michelangelo controlled strict access to his unfinished work in theSistine Chapel, but Raphael Sanzio was secretly allowed to glimpse the wondrous paintings there contemporaneously in progress with his own. Overwhelmed, Raphael then returned to remove a section of painted fresco, and replaced it with the figure of Michelangelo lounging on his block.  


And here’s Raphael himself in a black beret.







It’s a splendid light-filled tribute to one of the greatest periods in human history!!  Plato and Aristotle debate; there’s Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and Diogenes.

A bearded Socrates.




We were pleased to visit Rome in the off-season in which we could stand and gaze at it, in relative peace and quiet for as long as we wished!

Quest for Joy-5: Michaelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.

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We spent today with the art which we came to Rome to see. I have been to the Sistine Chapel before in 1986, but the frescoes have been cleaned in the last few years, and the whole thing was a whole lot less crowded and more tourist friendly. What a gargantuan museum! The guidebook warned that one gets footsore just getting to the Sistine Chapel through what feels like many museum miles–and that, unfortunately, was true.


The Sistine Chapel, 300 figures illustrating the pre-history and history of salvation, was painted over 54 years, single-handedly by Michaelangelo, lying on his back.


It was an instance of an artist being forced to produce by a patron.Pope Julius II believed Michelangelo could do anything and ordered him to decorate the ceiling of the chapel. “But I’m not a painter,” Michelangelo protested, “I’m a sculptor.  I’ve hardly done anything with a brush and you want me to paint 2000 square feet on a curved ceiling!” 

“You’ll do a great job,” said Julius. “I’ll have my architect Bramante set up the scaffolding for you.”  1   ‘He will paint it or he will hang!’ he is recorded to have muttered.

Pope Julius II, who was desperate to see it done, only lived for a few months after its conclusion. He is supposed to have constantly asked Michaelangelo during the 54 months  that he laboured on it,  ‘When you will make an end of it?’ and the answer was invariably the same: ‘When I’m finished!’  Finally, he ordered Michaelangelo to remove the scaffold and show the half-finished painting to his guests–who, predictably, were as overwhelmed as we are today.


And here is Michaelangelo’s caricature of himself painting the Sistine chapel ceiling

Michaelangelo, never one to do things by half-measures, came up with a grand design of 300 figures representing the pre-history of Salvation. 






What a glorious soaring conception!


God creates the world in a titanic burst of energy



Extends power to a quiescent Adam 







The temptation of Eve is surprisingly modern 





And the most amazing of all is Michaelangelo’s conception of the Lamb become a Lion, Christ at the Last Judgment, in radiant power. 


Christ is the flesh was powerful, a man’s man. He could walk miles in a day,  get a crowd of 15,000 to move, carry his cross after a scourging which killed weaker men. He was a manual worker, after all. Michaelangelo has captured this aspect of Christ.









And here is the whole of it.


 


Michaelangelo even includes a self-portrait of himself as an exhausted looking Jeremiah



Michaelangelo’s last recorded words, to his apprentice were, ” Work, Antonio, work, and do not waste time.”


Michaelangelo’s love was sculpture, and the project into which he had poured his heart, the tomb of  Julius II, was left unfinished because of the commissions and machinations of various popes.


See short post on Michaelangelo’s Moses http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-in-rome-michaelangelos-moses-and.html 
                                                                          * * *


My kids were not thrilled with me, because as I left, I said, “Work, Zoe, work, and do not waste time. Work, Irene, work, and do not waste time.”


And to myself, I said, predictably, “Work, Anita, work, and do not waste time.”
                                                                      * * *


When I last visited Rome, in 1986, I loved the poet Keats, and probably knew everything he had written “by heart.” 


Keats was terrified that he might die before he had written down all the books that were in his mind.
I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain, 


he wrote, presciently.


And he was right. He did die very young, and asked for this epitaph, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” I visited his grave on my last Roman pilgrimage.



                                                                         * * *  


And what does one do with these fears that one may never write all the books which are in one’s head?


Surrender yourself to God again. Your life is in your hands. Everything you might ever do or have or make is only by his grace. 


Ask him for grace and time to write the books you really want to write. 


Pray, 


“My life is in your hands,
My love for you will grow, my God
Your light in me will shine.”


From a hymn I used to love when I was 17. Carey Landry.


 

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The Brothers Become Brothers, Gen. 44, Day 54, Feb 23, Blog Through the Bible Project.

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Peter Von Cornelius

People do grow and change. In the process of maturation is hope for our world.

Genesis 44

A Silver Cup in a Sack

 1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
Joseph is human, after all. Is he exacting a tiny bit of revenge here?
 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 
Fulfilling his dream.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
He is testing his brothers to see if they have become brothers.
 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
The brothers have grown, they have matured. They are now men of conscience and kindness. Judah, in particular, shows why his tribe was Israel’s preeminent tribe, and why he was chosen to be an ancestor of the Messiah.
Conscience-stricken over the grief the selling of Joseph brought Jacob, Judah offers himself in stead of Benjamin–as centuries later, Jesus will offer himself as a willing victim in our stead. Judah’s character has significantly changed from the man who suggested selling Joseph into slavery, uncaring of the emotional effect this would have on Jacob.

The Brothers Become Brothers, Gen. 44, Day 54, Feb 23, Blog Through the Bible Project.

By

Peter Von Cornelius

People do grow and change. In the process of maturation is hope for our world.

Genesis 44

A Silver Cup in a Sack

 1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
Joseph is human, after all. Is he exacting a tiny bit of revenge here?
 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 
Fulfilling his dream.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
He is testing his brothers to see if they have become brothers.
 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
The brothers have grown, they have matured. They are now men of conscience and kindness. Judah, in particular, shows why his tribe was Israel’s preeminent tribe, and why he was chosen to be an ancestor of the Messiah.
Conscience-stricken over the grief the selling of Joseph brought Jacob, Judah offers himself in stead of Benjamin–as centuries later, Jesus will offer himself as a willing victim in our stead. Judah’s character has significantly changed from the man who suggested selling Joseph into slavery, uncaring of the emotional effect this would have on Jacob.