C. S. Lewis | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Following Jesus Is Costly and the Very Best Thing We Can Do

Anita Mathias — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 15:45:04 +0000

(I have read this meditation on the podcast above. I hope you enjoy it. Feedback welcome!) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life […]

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On Prayer-Walking, Seeking the Kingdom and Getting it All Thrown in

Anita Mathias — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:50:54 +0000

Lake Bled, Slovenia where we were last summer A friend describes her passion as: exercising and travel and exercising when she travels. The last phrase made me feel wistful because I never used to exercise when I travel. I found spending all day on my feet challenge enough. But then, on my return, it took […]

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The True Fairy Tale of the Life of Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Anita Mathias — Tue, 10 May 2016 20:46:21 +0000

He had been “the shyest, most unhappy-looking boy you could imagine,” –so journalist Charles Moore recollects Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, a fellow-student at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge. The alcoholic father, who had custody of him was, The Telegraph had revealed, a conman, a trickster, and (to Welby’s surprise) German-Jewish, not upper-class English. His […]

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Seeking a God’s Eye View of Success

Anita Mathias — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 21:14:14 +0000

My daughter Irene succeeding at walking. I was mentored in my thirties by a friend who genuinely knew God, but was nevertheless conservative and sexist, and made me feel guilty about my call to write which he saw as “dabbling.” He felt I should throw myself into housekeeping and childrearing, and would thereby find God […]

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Grazie Signore! “Thank you, Lord, for those who have greater gifts.”

Anita Mathias — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 11:14:18 +0000

In his excellent The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning mentions the limited Antonio Salieri, court composer to the Holy Roman Emperor, who was conscientious, devout, and wildly jealous of the wildly gifted Mozart who–neither conscientious, nor devout–tossed off sublime music in the interludes of a life of “wine, women and song, and he didn’t sing much.” […]

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The Power to Change Comes from Christ in Us, Our Hope of Glory

Anita Mathias — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 15:25:27 +0000

A mosaic in Ravenna, made of millions of broken tessarae of glass and enamel The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day: […]

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In which our Sehnsucht, Restless Longings, are Really a Longing for God Himself

Anita Mathias — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 21:58:48 +0000

Image: My Photograph of St. Paul’s Bay in Malta So we are looking forward to our half-term holiday—to sleeping in, no stress, family movies…and especially to getting away. * * * The funny thing is, we had all that—sleeping in, staying up late, family movies, luscious meals, creaking family dinner tables, and travel– last summer (when […]

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There will be “the essence of dogness” in Heaven: C.S. Lewis

Anita Mathias — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:31:29 +0000

Jake, my collie, in a buttercup meadow. ‘And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”’ (Rev 5:13). […]

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RIP Buttercup Duck! On Accepting Your Actual Life

Anita Mathias — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:09:34 +0000

The tall thin Indian Runner was killed; the fat Aylesbury mourns Climbing out of our pond When I was a child, I had a huge, fat bunny, two hens, two ducks and a dog. We had a large house with an acre around it. When we bought a house in the English countryside in […]

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First Things First, Pomodoros, A Schedule and Progress on New Year’s Goals

Anita Mathias — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:40:38 +0000

C. S. Lewis famously said, “When first things are put first, second things don’t diminish, they increase. You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.” Michael Hyatt spells this out this work-life balance. […]

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