Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art
In Creative Writing graduate school in the US, reading of the scandalous, chaotic and pain-filled private lives of the American poets whose luminous poetry I loved, I naively asked the professor if he thought one needed to be a good man or … [Continue reading]
Image Credit Penelope Swithinbank, an Anglican spiritual director and retreat leader, once told me an excellent way to get over the hump of forgiveness. Like many people, I can struggle to forgive for years, for decades, re-injuring myself … [Continue reading]
“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 … [Continue reading]
In her book The Soul of Money, global activist Lynne Twist refers to scarcity as “the great lie”. Twist writes, “For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, “I didn’t get enough sleep.” The next one is “I don’t have enough … [Continue reading]
When the Spirit comes, the one sure thing is: You will be unworthy. You cower in the upper room, quite out of ideas and momentum, and he comes like tongues of fire, and your speech is enabled. You stray into a Charismatic meeting aged 17, and joke … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
As long as I have a garden to muck about in, and the health to do it, I shall not mind growing old. My garden is a deep joy at the centre of my life, even though I am making peace with not being able to keep up with it: it’s an acre and a half. My … [Continue reading]
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At … [Continue reading]