Meditation | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Do Not Be Afraid–But Be as Wise as a Serpent

Welcome to the fourth episode of Christian Meditation with Anita Mathias.

Let’s breathe. For a few minutes, give ourselves the gift of restfulness. We’ll detach from “to do lists”, and re-enter the body, which, Scripture tells us, is the temple of the Holy Spirit within us.

When our minds are stressed, distracted or scattered, we can train ourselves to use breath prayers, short heart-felt prayers to repeat as we calm our minds, hearts, and spirits.

Here’s a breath prayer, in simple Latin, because it has a lovely rhythm. Veni Sante Spiritus. Come, Holy Spirit.

Being filled with God’s spirit is one of our deepest needs and greatest experiences as human beings. It’s God’s wisdom to help us when we are baffled, to still us when we stressed. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and fthe ear of the Lord. We need this power source, this electricity to do good work which lasts.

Let’s breathe and invite God’s spirit to descend on us. Veni Sancte Spiritus. Come Holy Spirit. It’s part of a lovely Taize chant you can listen to on Youtube, which goes like Veni Sancte Spiritus. Come, Holy Spirit.

Today’s meditation is on not being afraid, but rather, acting with wisdom.

Do not be afraid, the angel in the dream

tells Joseph: Marry your fiancée, Mary,

who is showing, despite your chaste restraint,

for in our magical world, in which angels

speak to humans, a virgin has conceived

by the Spirit of God, as long foretold, by the prophet Isaiah,

and the child shall be called Jesus, which means The Lord Saves,

and he shall save people from the power of sin.

And Joseph is not afraid and marries Mary.

And the angel’s words are soon confirmed

For a star appeared in the East,

And the astrologers who saw it, followed it to Jerusalem,

Searching for one they knew was born

the King of the Jews (terrifying jealous King Herod!).

And when the star stopped, they worshipped the child

With precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

But then, the prophetic dream-angel,

Appeared with a different message:

Flee to Egypt, and stay there “until I tell you to leave,”

For King Herod plans to kill

The child who is to be a forever-King.

What? The dream angel who exhorted, “Do not be afraid?”

Now says, “Escape to Egypt.”

Escape to Egypt? Leave my business, extended family,

Friends, my language? Live among strangers? Become a refugee?

But, oh dream-angel, wasn’t it you who said, “Do not be afraid?”

But the spirit is like the wind, the child Jesus later said.

It sometimes blows new guidance, new directions.

(And, indeed, Herod would soon slaughter every male infant and toddler in Bethlehem.)

God’s Spirit within us teaches us

The difference between acting out of fear

And acting with wisdom.

Scripture repeatedly commands us not to be afraid,

For most things we fear will never happen,

And when trouble comes: They are there–

God our loving Father, Christ our friend,

and the Holy Spirit whom Jesus calls

The Helper, Counsellor, and Comforter.

Fear wastes time, energy and life–

Fear of being judged leads to over-cooking and over-cleaning-up for guests.

Fear of judgement leads overwhelmed you to signing up to all those rotas

While neglecting your own home, family, gifts and calling.

Fear might lead to foolish worrying about your bank balance,

When you know the Lord Jesus Christ who added three zeros

When he multiplied the five loaves.

What then is the wisdom Jesus recommends?

We go out as sheep among wolves, Christ tells us.

And, he adds, dangerously, some wolves are dressed like sheep.

They seem respectable—busy charity volunteers, Church people.

Oh, the noblest sentiments in the noblest words,

But they drain you of money, energy, time, your lifeblood.

How then could a sheep, the most defenceless creature on earth,

Possibly be safe, among wolves,

Particularly wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing?

A sheep among wolves can be safe

if it keeps its eyes on its Shepherd, and listens to him.

Check in with your instincts, and pay attention to them,

for they can be God’s Spirit within you, warning you.

We have too the wisdom of The Good Book.

And, as Jesus cautions, assess people before you trust them,

Not by their words, but by the fruit of their lives

Which says more than words can.

Do things add up? Any red flags?

And Jesus has another memorable piece of advice

For his disciples, those sheep among wolves.

Be as wise, as phronimos as a serpent. The koine Greek word

Phronimos means shrewd, sensible, cautious, prudent.

These traits don’t come naturally to me.

But if Christ commands that we be as wise,

shrewd, sensible, cautious and prudent as a serpent,

His Spirit will empower us to be so.

A serpent is a carnivorous reptile,

But animals, birds and frogs are not easily caught.

So, the snake wastes no energy in bluster or self-promotion.

It does not boast of its plans; it does not show-off.

It is a creature of singular purpose, deliberate and slow-moving

For much of its life, it rests, camouflaged,

soaking in the sun, waiting and planning.

It’s patient, almost invisible, until the time is right

And then, it acts swiftly and decisively.

The wisdom of the snake then is in waiting

For the right time. It conserves energy,

Is warmed by the sun, watches, assesses,

and when the time is right, it moves swiftly

And very effectively.

But what of “two-faced snakes”

Who smile and smile and yet are villains?

Who wait till their Caesar-enemy is down,

Before they strike. God does not bless such lives.

Those who take the sword, perish by the sword, Jesus says,

Unless they repent, and a merciful God forgives.

However, as always, Jesus balances his advice:

Be as wise as a serpent, yes, but also as blameless

akeraios as a dove. As pure, as guileless, as good.

Be wise, but not only to provide for yourself and family

But, also, to fulfil your calling in the world,

The one task God has given you, and no one else

Which you alone, and no one else, can do,

And which God will increasingly reveal to you,

as you wait and ask.

Today’s meditation was from Matthew Chapter 2.

If you’d like to read my previous recorded meditations,

3 Our Failures are the Cracks Through Which God’s Light Enters

2 The World is full of the Glory of God

1 Mindfulness is Remembering the Presence of Christ with us.

Please subscribe at Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks!!

And, of course, I would love you to read my memoir, fruit of much “blood, sweat, toil and tears.”

Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India in the UK, and in the US, here, well, and widely available, online, worldwide 🙂

IMAGE: Photo by Bicanski on Pixnio

Our Failures are the Cracks through which God’s Light Enters

By Anita Mathias 2 Comments

The Book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible ends on an ecstatic note,

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.”

Through the day, when you feel distracted, or sense stress rising, or your breathing becoming ragged, try a breathing prayer. Say this ancient Aramaic word to yourself, Maranatha. Four equally stressed syllables which mean Come Lord Jesus.

So as we begin to calm down and enter our bodies, let’s say that, one syllable with each inhale and exhale. Ma-ra-na-tha. Ma-ra-na-tha. Come Lord Jesus.

And now to today’s meditation on how our very failures are the cracks through which God’s light gets in.

The ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ

As outlined in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:

The deceiving, scheming younger brother Jacob

Who tricked his elder brother out of his inheritance;

Tamar, who tricked her father-in-law into sex.

Rahab the Canaanite prostitute, mother of the honourable Boaz.

Ruth, the determined and destitute Moabite widow

Who, bathed and perfumed, crept in the dead of night,

To lie beside an inebriated Boaz.

Ruth and Boaz, grandparents of King David

Who spotted beautiful Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite,

Bathing on a roof, summoned her to bed,

And when she fell pregnant, had her husband

Uriah, who was off fighting for King David, killed.

Bathsheba, mother of Solomon whose “heart was led astray

by his seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines”.

From such, the Lord Jesus Christ came.

And who are the descendants of Jesus,

Grafted into his family by the faith

That Christ, who visited us twenty centuries ago,

was God himself, God who can change

the deep structure of our characters,

and the molecules of our heart and spirit?

Those descendants include us

whose failings may be less spectacular,

but as secret, and as sad.

The one who flogs the dying horse of her exhausted mind

with cups of coffee until it burns out;

Who takes on far too much of the insignificant,

putting neither first things nor first people first.

Who is distracted from distraction by distraction,

While her house gets cluttered and overwhelms her;

Who frets when she should be living by faith and prayer.

The world is too much with her.

For such Jesus came all those centuries ago.

To such, he comes today

And you, when you say, ah, there goes my temper.

I am being that critical, negative person I did not want to be.

For such he came.

And was it you had resolved just this morning, to run 10,000 steps, to burn 2200 calories, do yoga and lift weights? Flexibility, strength, endurance, perfection.

And time slipped away on your phone, Facebook, the Guardian, the New Yorker.

You look at your browser history and wince.

Your one, wild and precious life slipping away,

surfing news that is none of your business

You feel the sting of regret, irreplaceable time, vanished.

For you, who have failed, he came.

You’ve not read as much as you wanted to,

You have not been kind, or written that long-delayed letter.

You have betrayed your gifts and your calling.

And it was for people who fail, people like you that Christ came.

All your failures provide landing places, entry points,

Cracks through his light gets in.

Your pride is cracking, your self-sufficiency is cracking,

And you are ripe for his invasion.

And all you can say is Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.

And he says,

“I have long stood at your door, and knocked

And now, you hear my voice and open to me,

And so, I will come in and eat with you.”

And you say, again,

“Maranatha.

Come, Lord Jesus.”

This meditation was from Matthew 1

If you’d like to read my previous recorded meditations,

2 The World is full of the Glory of God

1 Mindfulness is Remembering the Presence of Christ with us.

And, of course, i would love you to read my memoir, fruit of much “blood, sweat, toil and tears.”

Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India in the UK, and in the US, here, well, and widely available, online, worldwide 🙂

The Whole Earth is Full of God’s Glory

By Anita Mathias 2 Comments

Hello, welcome to the second episode of Christian meditation with Anita Mathias.

Let’s close our eyes, and detach from the world, and begin to enter the inner sanctuary of the soul.
The best way of calming down is by focusing on our breath. Breathe in to the count of five; breathe out. Again.
The Hebrew word for God was Yahweh, which is the sound of breath, I’ve read. Breathe Yah on the in breath. Weh on the outer breath. Yah weh. Yah weh.

Begin to enter your body. Raise your shoulders to your ears. Rotate them clockwise, anti-clockwise.
Tense and wriggle your fingers. And toes.

The prophet Isaiah experienced an ecstatic vision of God. He writes,
I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
The whole earth is full of his glory.”

And that is the one sentence to take from this meditation, to tuck into your heart, and mind, and spirit and memory and carry with you for your whole life.

The whole earth is full of God’s glory.

Life comes to each of us in waves, ups and downs. At times, we are floating; at times, sadness or depression, which feels like something heavy lodged in our body, seizes us. At those times, movement helps, and also to, as far as possible, in the words of Paul the Apostle, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.”

And one way to start being grateful for the gift of our lives is by observing the natural world. The movement of clouds in the sky, their ever-changing canvas, the singing birds, which at dusk makes it sound as if the trees are singing, the trees themselves which grow and change in their ancient silent dignity, the green plants and the flowers, each unique. This is a created universe, a made universe, imagined and invented and given to us by God. And the whole earth is full of God’s glory.

If it’s night, or if you are in an institution and cannot look out at God’s sky, use your memories of the natural world, God’s holy earth, with what the poet William Wordsworth calls, “the inward eye which is the bliss of solitude.”

This is our Father’s world, and the whole earth is full of his glory. God stalks this world invisibly, as Christ, in the flesh, walked the hills of Galilee.

And here’s an excerpt from a poem by Coventry Patmore
In No Strange Land

The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
you weep;—then
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.
Yea, in the night, my Soul,
Cry,—clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Christ is everywhere, stalking the world, walking on the waters not just of Gennesaret, but the Thames, which flows minutes from my own house in England. As we spend more time in the natural world, we realise that we live in a God-haunted world where the wind and trees and storms cry Holy.

“The LORD bless you
and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
May the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’

Thank you. If you’d like to listen to the previous meditation, here it is https://anitamathias.com/2023/02/20/mindfulness-is-remembering-the-presence-of-christ-with-us/

Mindfulness is Remembering the Presence of Christ with Us

By Anita Mathias 9 Comments

Hi Friends, Welcome to a new podcast, Christian Meditation with Anita. This is the first episode.

Over the last four years, meditation has begun to change my life.

A session of meditation before I write calms and focuses my mind and helps me gather my thoughts. It is the most effective way I know to help me settle down and focus.

It is a solution to the turbulence of life. Get very quiet, retreat into yourself, and be alone with your breath and the God who made you.

Meditation calms and rewires the nervous system. It has made me quieter, less reactive, more aware of what I am feeling, and more perceptive of unspoken currents of human interaction, and what other people might be feeling. And as you begin to slow down, to quieten down in the deep heart’s core, over time, you become more able to choose your responses wisely, and kindly.

With its focus on the breath, meditation helps you switch your attention off the hamster wheel of annoying repetitive mosquito thoughts to something else, pretty much at will.

I recently started meditating seriously again, after developing sciatica due to over-exercising on our family holiday in December. The pain can scream for attention, feel excruciating, all-enveloping, and then, after a few minutes of meditation, it begins to subside and, as I switch my focus to my breath and the meditation tape, my whole body relaxes and the pain becomes imperceptible, fades.

So, let’s do some meditation. Let’s give ourselves the gift, the luxury of getting very quiet, of retreating within ourselves to relax, and be with the God who made us.

Close your eyes, sit straight, or cross-legged if that’s comfortable for you, and begin to breathe. A deep breath in. And out. Breathe in deeply. Breathe out fully. A deep breath in. And out. Twice more.

When Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples as a gift, an inheritance, he breathed on them.

As you relax your body, picture a golden wave of the love of God coursing through it, relaxing it.

If you feel tension in your shoulders, raise them up to your ears, slowly roll them, clockwise, anticlockwise. Repeat.

There is a direct connection between our hips and our emotions, I’ve read. Stressful thoughts, stressful interactions, unresolved bubbling emotions can trigger the pain of sciatica. Send your breath towards your hips. Breathe in, breathe out.

Let the breath travel to your toes. Clench them, wriggle them, relax. Breathe.

Meditation, focus on the breath, is a tool for calming down right in your body. It teaches us mindfulness, a current buzz word.

But what are we mindful of?

We are mindful of the presence of the God. We are mindful that we are living in a holy experience. We remember that life is a gift given to us by God, and it is short. We must savour it with gratitude.

So anything that will enhance the joy with which we live life, anything that will enhance the gratitude and wonder with which we go through our holy experience, is a blessing. And the first way we begin to appreciate the gift of our lives is by slowing down.

Breathe in to the count of five; breathe out. Take another four deep breaths.

Christian mindfulness is awareness of a presence with us, always with us, the triune God, Father, Son, Spirit. There is another in the room, a source of wisdom in the room, a source of guidance. You walk into a room; they walk in with you, and are already there. Waiting. Father, Son, Spirit.

We are mindful of the Father’s presence with us, right now.

The Father, into whose lap we can climb into with our needs, our wants, and our questions. If this image resonates with you, visualise yourself climbing into the arms of the Everlasting Father, the Ancient of Days, and whispering your worry to him. Ask him for wisdom.

At some time in your life, you may, in God’s mercy, hit a brick wall. You may know all the good things to do, but struggle to do them. You may struggle with weight loss perhaps, or organised housekeeping, with developing a habit of exercise, with waking early to hang out with God, or with doing disciplined creative work. There may be things you may need to change in your character, a crabby temper, say, which you struggle to change. And you find that you simply do not have the power within yourself to make these changes. And then, all the Christian cliches you’ve heard, Let go and let God make sense.

In the quietness of this moment, ask God to begin to make those internal changes in the molecules of your soul; ask God to do that thing in you which you cannot do yourself.

We are mindful that wherever we are, there is always another presence, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God. Our Lord and our God. He walks beside us as he walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Mindfulness is taking a moment to worship him, seated on the throne.

To trust Jesus means to take him seriously enough to do what he tells us to do. What is one thing you sense Christ asking you to do, or one change he is asking you to make? Ask him for help to do it.

We are mindful of the presence of the Spirit with us, who descended in the New Testament as a peaceful dove, and as tongues of fire. Who is our Counsellor and Comforter. Jesus promised that those who ask for the Spirit will receive him, and that the Spirit will teach us all things. What is the one thing you want the Spirit to teach you?

And that is our meditation for the day. God is with you. You are surrounded by his presence, Father, Son, Spirit. Go today, amid the day’s inevitable ups and downs, remaining aware that the powerful Lord God sits on his throne, in control, and is sovereign over the ebbs and flow of your life, its successes and apparent failures. There is one with you, walking beside you, the Lord Jesus Christ, who calls his disciples his friends. And you have the best teacher, the Holy Spirit, the Counsellor and Comforter, who on your request, will descend on you like a dove, and increasingly fill you. Ask him to bless and anoint you for the work which God has called you to do.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
May the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.