In which I play in the fields of prayer | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

On the Benefits of Writing Down Our Prayers

Anita Mathias — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:45:15 +0000

We are listening to A Praying Life by Paul Miller, a wonderful book on prayer in the car. (I was, incidentally disciplined by the author for almost five years, as he mentions in the book). Anyway, Miller tells us that he often prays aloud. Jesus did so in his High Priestly Prayer in John 17, […]

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Analysing my Experience of Prayer over the Last 19 Years

Anita Mathias — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 22:44:54 +0000

So I come to my time of prayer, and I am dry and distracted. My thoughts are whirling; I cannot hear God speak, and I have nothing to say. My spirit feels numb. Prayer? It’s as if you are having coffee with a friend you haven’t seen for a while, and you are so out […]

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When Shackles become Wings: On Domesticity, Creativity, and Me

Anita Mathias — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 13:13:51 +0000

I was married 25 years ago, while in a Ph.D programme in Creative Writing at the State University of New York Binghamton. I had just earned a BA and an MA in English from Somerville College, Oxford, then an MA in Creative Writing from Ohio State University. My husband probably hoped for a traditional marriage, […]

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On Liturgy (which I Dislike)

Anita Mathias — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 11:20:11 +0000

I was interested to hear the leader on my silent retreat say that different approaches to prayer or the spiritual life are like food. Different people like different things. Such a simple way of expressing a new thought for me. (I had a mental gradation of superior and less-evolved spiritual practices.) * * * I intensely […]

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The Only Form of Multitasking that makes you Cleverer

Anita Mathias — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 13:17:26 +0000

My daughter Irene returned from a talk by neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield informing us that multitasking decreases fluid IQ more than smoking marijuana, or losing a night’s sleep does. My daughter, as intense as I am, walks around the house with her iPad, watching documentaries or TED talks or AsapScience (when she isn’t reading or studying.) […]

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Wriggling towards Shalom

Anita Mathias — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 20:39:53 +0000

When I find I am stressed, or distressed, I like to pause there and then instead of going through the day with undefined, subterranean unease. I take the question to which I do not know the answer–how to be more productive perhaps. How to read more. How to help someone. How to get our business […]

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Surprised: When Exercise and Prayer Provide Similar Benefits

Anita Mathias — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 11:49:52 +0000

“I’ve had a good day,” I say to Roy as we drift off to sleep. “Oh, I thought you said your day wasn’t going well,” he says. “Well it wasn’t, but then it got all turned around.” What turned it round? Well, I went on a 3.25 mile walk, walking as fast as I could, […]

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Making a Difference Through Prayer and Writing: In Praise of Julian of Norwich

Anita Mathias — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:11:58 +0000

I read the papers and stress rises. So much injustice! 21 million people enslaved (14 million of them in India), land-grabbing, starvation, destruction of ecosystems, precious species going extinct, the restavek system in Haiti, slavery in Qatar, and the plight of the Palestinians. My heart sinks. I am just one girl of limited energy. I […]

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“Useless Prayer” by Henri Nouwen

Anita Mathias — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 09:08:56 +0000

“WHY should I spend an hour in prayer when I do nothing during that time but think about people I am angry with, people who are angry with me, books I should read and books I should write, and thousands of other silly things that happen to grab my mind for a moment? The answer […]

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Housework as a Pathway to Prayer—with Vermeer’s Women

Anita Mathias — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:32:25 +0000

You can almost hear the silence. The milkmaid is quiet, so quiet, and time is suspended as she pours milk. The hands work while the mind thinks. Is it a life of drudgery, or is it a gift–her trivial chore a window into eternity, time to think, to pray, to look out of the window […]

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