random | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Images from Corfu: The Garden of the Gods

By Anita Mathias

We are in Corfu for the week, and are greatly enjoying it.

The sea views are amazing, and I have never seen such lovely turquoise seas. Love the rock formations.

The view from our apartment

A cove on the “Main Beach” at Paleokastristra.

Some of the many cliffs that surround Paleokastistra.

The “Main Beach”, one of six beaches at Paleokastistra.

Gerald Durrell blamed himself for making Corfu such a popular holiday destination.

I blame Gerald Durrell (who incidentally was born in the same small town as I was, Jamshedpur, India!!) for the hordes of the most gorgeous stray dogs and cats everywhere.

Two friendly strays outside the monastery.

The only dog allowed into the monastery.

Irene, who loves his books told me of a scene in “The Garden of the Gods,” where Durrell asks the owner of a pregnant dog for a puppy. The Durrells already had four dogs, and their mother had refused to have any more. However, he reckoned that if he arrived with a puppy, their mother would not say no. So the owner shows up with a pup, but not the one Gerry wanted. When he goes back with her, he hears the ground barking and heaving. She had buried the blind pups alive, and excavates them, their mouths filled with soil from their barking. The more they barked, the more soil entered, until they would have choked to death. He showers her with his best Greek curses and takes them home, and his mother lets him keep them. All of them! Wondering if the descendants of these fabulous eleven now populate Corfu.

We went to the Paleokastristra Monastery, also called Theotokos Monastery this morning. My, what a monastery—quite unlike any Catholic monastery I’ve seen. A strong odour of cat’s pee. Dozens of beautiful cats all over, on the grape arbour, in the courtyards, mating on roofs, tiny newborn kittens suckling in cardboard boxes.

Four cats on the grape arbour.

The most spectacular view from the courtyards of the glittering Ionian sea. 39-DSCN6630

Glorious icons and mosaics.

Mosaic in an alcove under he grape arbour.

Mosaic in an alcove under the grape arbour.

Mosiac in an alcove under the grape arbour.

Icon of the Virgin (In the church)

The communion of saints (Painting in the church)

Ceiling painting of the Trinity, and the Virgin.

I particularly loved the layout, gracious courtyards beneath grape arbours. Another thing which struck me was the complete absence of the cat-loving monks.

A bell tower typical of the area.

Anita and Irene test the echoing well.

The monastery’s upper courtyard.

Walked to modestly named Bella Vista with startling views of the Ionian islands, and explored a couple of gorgeous beaches.

View from Bella Vista

View from Bella Vista (Note peninsula with Paleokastritsa Monastery)

In which Heaven will be like Handel’s Messiah on Good Friday at the Royal Albert Hall

By Anita Mathias

Image Credit

Yesterday, on Good Friday, I listened to the Royal Choral Society sing Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall.

Gorgeous, glorious, a worship experience in itself. I sat still for most of it tears streaming down my face, as I listened to prophecies of the gentle lamb that was slain, who before his shearers was dumb, who becomes the lamb upon the throne hailed by ecstatic choirs:

Blessing and honour, glory and power
Be unto Him, be unto Him
That sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain

And has redeemed us to God, by His blood
To receive power and riches, and wisdom
And strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing

And who, as the Kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, in the ultimate triumph of meekness and gentleness, is worshipped as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords who shall reign forever and ever.

* * *

Tradition has it that moved by the majesty of the music, King George II stood as the Hallelujah Chorus began, and remained standing. And following the custom of standing when the King stood, the entire audience stood too.

Certainly, everyone in the Royal Albert Hall stood yesterday–the music was too majestic not to!!–though, in America, some in audiences insist on remaining seated through it.

* * *

Legend has it too that Handel’s servant came upon soon after he composed the Hallelujah Chorus and reported him saying, “I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God.” I don’t doubt it. The music is divine!

And if the music in heaven is anything like The Hallelujah Chorus, my, what a treat we have in store for us.

Linking with Laura Boggess http://www.lauraboggess.com/

“Acting Justly, Loving Mercy and Walking Humbly”: a guest post by Matthew Currey of Tearfund

By Anita Mathias

Matthew Currey

I am honoured to host this guest post from Matthew Currey of Tearfund.

Matt Currey is a disciple seeking to follow Jesus. He works for the charity Tearfund as part of the IMPACT UK team, seeking to play a part in bringing hope and transformation to those living in poverty in the UK.

He lives in West London, and loves music, food, film, reading, writing, volunteering, good coffee, local parks, exploring life and playing with his amazing family.

He also blog/engages through The Breathe Network and is part of St John’s Church in Southall

* * *

“Jesus’ existence made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks” Henri Nouwen

I was inspired, heartened and challenged by Anita’s post and subsequent discussions last week to Remember the Poor. As someone who works for the charity Tearfund and who has a passion for issues of poverty and injustice it’s encouraging to see people really engaging, exploring and taking action in this area. For me, beyond any professional/work capacity, as a Christian the issue of Justice and God’s heart for the poor, the broken, the marginalised is something that in my view should be at the heartbeat and forefront of the outworking of our discipleship. It is integral to our whole life and an expression of our worship.

The writer Brian Draper this week helpfully reminded me of a poem called A Future not our own.

33 years ago this week, on the 24th March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down by a government-backed death squad, while he was saying Mass in San Salvador. As Simon Barrow, director of the think-tank Ekklesia, writes, “Romero was a remarkable and brave champion of the poor. But his background was not in the least radical. Far from it. It was exposure to the reality and human cost of injustice that converted him to an understanding of the Gospel that has peace and justice at his core. He has inspired millions of people – Catholic and otherwise, religious and non-religious, across the world.”

Poverty is not a statistic or an issue. Poverty is personal. Poverty has a name, the names of people who live in poverty are real people and not statistics. People who have a story, who have hopes, dreams and fears just like you and me. I am thankful and mindful of how important it is to keep being reminded of this. Because I know that it is possible that we ‘Remember the Poor’ but do we really know the poor and get really involved in the lives and stories of the poor?

I am very mindful of the times I have had the privilege of travelling overseas with Tearfund and each time the opportunity to encounter and live with others who materially may have much less than I do but who have a richness of hospitality and community that I often lack. These experiences can be overwhelming. I am thankful for the people, stories and lives of hope that I have connected with on these trips. They are humbling and inspiring.

In an age of hyper individualism and hyper communication it can be easy to be both overwhelmed or conversely overly cynical or overly able to hibernate from the horrors all around us. I’ve done both and keep repeating that pattern. I wish I didn’t but I do. Learning can take time, for I am slow and also if I am honest I crave my comforts and my safety.

We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.

Last year I embarked upon a series of 9 themed journeys throughout 2012, with each one lasting for 40 days. It was a really great experience and I am glad that I did it. However my reflection was that in being intentional we also have to be full of grace. In being passionate and compassionate we need to be shaped by Love, Mercy and Humility, not false humility, but characteristics that keep our service and our journey fresh, real and honest. I came to the conclusion, with thanks for the help from the brilliant book by Mark Powley called Consumer Detox, that less really is more.

It’s amazing what can be achieved when we focus on one thing and do it well. I love this film that is based on a modern day outworking of The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14: 15-24). In it the two people who are set the challenge have to focus and do the one thing well.

What is the one thing that we might be being stirred or encouraged to do? How could we use our gifts to practice generosity, hospitality, creativity or something else entirely?

One Way of Seizing Happiness

By Anita Mathias

A famous Zen koan

A man walking across a field encounters a bear. He fled, the bear chasing after him.

Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The bear sniffed at him from above.

Terrified, the man looked down to where, far below, a tiger had come, waiting to eat him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little began to gnaw away at the vine.

The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine in one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! “Ah,” he said. “Delicious.”

Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thess 5 16-18)

Image credit

Remember the Poor

By Anita Mathias

Image: Francis of Assisi in Franco Zefferelli’s gorgeous film, “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”

“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,” Galatians 2:10

Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis describes how, during the conclave, as it became evident that the voting was swinging his way, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes of Brazil, “a great friend, hugged me, he kissed me and he said, ‘Remember the poor!’ And that way the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi.” The saint who loved the poor.

Canadian songwriter and church planter David Ruis, whom I heard speak at a New Wine Conference has a tattoo on his arm which says, “Remember the Poor.” Except it starts at the wrist, and travels up his elbow, and his shirt covers the last letter, the joke goes.

* * *

So how do we remember the poor?

Well, we share our wealth. How much? The Old Testament figure of 10% remains a good yardstick, in my opinion, though this sum should be governed by grace and the spirit, not law.

Just 10%? Not “sell all you have and give to the poor?” (Matt 19:21). Well, I have noticed both when I lived in small town Williamsburg, VA and in Oxford, that God places Christians at every level of society from the highest, right down. In the Gospels, the people attracted to Jesus included rich members of the Sanhedrin like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus as well as fisherman.

At my evangelical church in Oxford, my small group and spouses includes two Principals of Oxford Colleges, ministry heads, doctors, professors and successful business people. To be realistic, if these people did not dress, drive cars, entertain and live in houses that befit their “station in life,” to use a Catholic phrase, they would be written off as weird and different, and their ability to be the fragrance of Christ, to present Christ and faith in him as attractive would be severely compromised. For that is one way of winning people to Christ—lifestyle evangelism, being the fragrance of Christ, attracting people long before important conversations ever take place.

* * *

Hmm. So remember the poor without necessarily giving away so much money that you are one of the poor. How do you do that?

Here are some ways I can think of, which I mostly practice.

1 Give. Of course. Many (most?) Christians in the first world could increase their giving without feeling the pinch, I suspect!

2 Even if the money you saved is not necessarily given away, and even if you are not yourself poor, act in your choices as if you remember that you live in a world in which there is extreme poverty.

Don’t necessarily treat yourself to the best of everything, even if you can sometimes afford to. It’s a small way of maintaining solidarity with the poor.

Some practical ways:

a) Restraint in clothing—not buying too many clothes which are overpriced, will rarely be worn, or are whimsically fashionable and will soon date—even if one can afford to.

b) Restraint in food choices—not necessarily buying the most expensive items in the store or in a restaurant menu, even if one can afford to. Being content with simplicity

c) Interior decoration. I used to upgrade when furniture looked a bit worn, but now I often say, “So what? It’s a bit old and a bit worse for wear, but so what?”

d) Not having the best you can afford in things which tend to be status symbols (houses, cars, holidays) frees you from caring what people think, or how they assess your income or net worth.

For instance, we bought our family car, a Chrysler Town and Country minivan (called a Dodge people-carrier here, in the UK) in 2001. It’s now 13 years old, but is running well, and so we haven’t replaced it!

e) On the other hand, avoid false economies whenever you can afford to. These waste both time and money. Though, of course, you will pay more at the outset, buying high quality furniture, clothing, appliances and cars which you can use for many years makes perfect sense even in a world of poverty (rather than buying cheap computers, shoes, toasters and clothes which you will always be replacing).

* * *

Oh, I am just a novice at this. What is the best way to “remember the poor?”

Two Cures for Too Much Theologizing

By Anita Mathias

Image credit

1 The Stars

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman

2 The Living Word

In his famous Christmas sermon of 1522 (600 years ago!!) Martin Luther declared,

“O that God should desire that my interpretation and that of all teachers should disappear, and each Christian should come straight to the Scripture alone and to the pure word of God!

You see from this babbling of mine the immeasurable difference between the word of God and all human words, and how no man can adequately reach and explain a single word of God with all his words.

It is an eternal word and must be understood and contemplated with a quiet mind.

No one else can understand except a mind that contemplates in silence.

For anyone who could achieve this without commentary or interpretation, my commentaries and those of everyone else could not only be of no use, but merely a hindrance.

Go to the Bible itself, dear Christians, and let my expositions and those of all scholars be no more than a tool with which to build aright, so that we can understand, taste, and abide in the simple and pure word of God.”

The Benefits of Optimism (and how Venting Anger makes you Feel Worse)

By Anita Mathias

I have been ruminating on positive thinking, and on particular, on whether it is better to express anger (vent!) or not, and so loved this article in The Atlantic by Emily Esfahani Smith: The Benefits of Optimism are Real.

Here are a few ideas from the article

1 “Having a positive outlook in difficult circumstances is not only an important predictor of resilience — how quickly people recover from adversity — but it is the most important predictor of it. People who are resilient tend to be more positive and optimistic compared to less-resilient folks; they are better able to regulate their emotions; and they are able to maintain their optimism through the most trying circumstances.”

2 Dwelling on anger and anxiety makes you feel worse

“For many years, psychologists, following Freud, thought that people simply needed to express their anger and anxiety — blow off some steam — to be happier. But this is wrong. Researchers, for example, asked people who were mildly-to-moderately depressed to dwell on their depression for eight minutes. The researchers found that such ruminating caused the depressed people to become significantly more depressed and for a longer period of time than people who simply distracted themselves thinking about something else. Senseless suffering — suffering that lacks a silver lining — viciously leads to more depression.”

3 Venting makes you feel worse

Counter-intuitively, another study found that facing down adversity by venting — hitting a punching bag or being vengeful toward someone who makes you angry — actually leads to people feeling far worse, not better. Actually, doing nothing at all in response to anger was more effective than expressing the anger in these destructive ways.

4 In another study, those who try to find meaning from trauma grow wiser, and experienced better health than those who simply vent about it. The stories people told themselves as they searched for a silver lining healed them.

5 Positive people are more resilient physically and emotionally. They a “revealed more happiness, interest, and eagerness” toward solving their worst problems.

“When your mind starts soaring, you notice more and more positive things. This unleashes an upward spiral of positive emotions that opens people up to new ways of thinking and seeing the world — to new ways forward. This is yet another reason why positive people are resilient. They see opportunities that negative people don’t. Negativity, for adaptive reasons, puts you in defense mode, narrows your field of vision, and shuts you off to new possibilities since they’re seen as risks.”

What I am into (Feb 2013 edition) and Progress on New Year’s Goals

By Anita Mathias

Retreats. I spent 4 days in Wales at Fflad-y-Brenin in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a very creative place, known for the dreams, visions and ideas people receive while staying there (according to the founder, Roy Godwin). Though I had set the time aside to seek God, ideas kept coming, and I wrote several blog posts, which I will be posting slowly. So it turned out to be a writing retreat, rather than a seeking God retreat. Sigh!

God is everywhere all the time of course, but sometimes, one needs to make a hard stop; turn off other distractions and seek him in a concentrated, concerted way to hear him. I oddly hear God far better and receive more direction for my life on holidays and retreats than when at home. Is it the lack of possessions and clutter, or just the break from familiar routines? I don’t know.

And Wales—well, it was cold, wet and beautiful!!

Ffald-y-Brenin, the Farmhouse, the Hermitage, the Beehive Chapel, and the main residential building (left to right)

Walking. Taking a WalkFit Course with Joanna Hall in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Though, well, I should have learnt to walk as a toddler, I am conscious that I walk very slowly compared to “normal” people. Joanna’s technique is adding speed—oh, and endorphins and pleasure to my walks. Long strides, leave on the toes, arrive on the heel, stand tall, head straight, draw up your thighs and pelvis, suck in your abs. Complex, but you incorporate these things slowly. My posture is improving, and I am walking faster and more. Joanna has us walk up a hill counting steps. And then again, and again, shaving 5% off our steps each time.

And I am finally walking the recommended 10,000 steps a day. And it is a lot.

Exploring. Loved being a tourist in London after my course. We spent a magical, fascinating afternoon poking around Westminster Abbey, amid those mass of monuments, especially enjoying Poet’s Corner. I adored the mosaics at St Paul’s!

A few of the memorials in Poets Corner

Brass floor inlay, Westminster Abbey (St. George)

The Cloister, Westminster Abbey

South Towers of Westminster Abbey from the cloister

Houses of Parliament from the Cloister, Westminster Abbey .

Now some images from St. Paul’s

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Ceiling Mosiac in St. Paul’s Cathedral

Decoration, St. Paul’s Cathedral

Decoration on a column, St. Paul’s Cathedral

Chapel dedicated to American Fallen Servicemen from World War II

William Holman Hunt’s grave. One of the many in the crypt of St. Paul’s. The largest is Lord Nelson’s.

Theatre—Enjoyed Mr. Darwin’s Tree, a one-act play, a memoir of Darwin. And The Winter’s Tale at Stratford-on-Avon

Reading—Enjoyed Hamlet’s Dresser, a memoir of salvation from sadness through immersion in Shakespeare. Enjoying Saul Bellow’s rumbunctious Adventures of Augie March.

Progress on New Year’s Goals