peace | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

A Mind of Life and Peace in the Middle of a Global Pandemic

Anita Mathias — Mon, 04 May 2020 10:35:59 +0000

From a walk by the River Thames. I have been thinking about this sentence in the Book of Romans, “The mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit […]

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Deep peace in times of political turmoil

Anita Mathias — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 23:07:55 +0000

The Deep Peace of Wild Places (Iceland, August, 2019) I consciously (though sometimes unsuccessfully) try not to invest emotional energy in politics, just as I try to invest no emotional energy in sports, including the Olympics or the World Cup. Why waste energy on things whose outcome I am unable to influence? (Of course, an […]

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The Life-Changing Practice of Meditation

Anita Mathias — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 18:24:05 +0000

So, a couple of years ago, almost on a whim, my husband Roy and I took an intensive eight week course in Mindfulness at the Oxford Department of Psychiatry! (and at the famous local psychiatric hospital, the Warneford!!) I didn’t really know what Mindfulness was, but I “knew,” we should do it. You can imagine […]

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7 things I learned from Simon Vibert’s “Stress: The Path to Peace”

Anita Mathias — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 20:23:12 +0000

Available on Amazon.com Available on Amazon.co.uk Living with high levels of stress can be physically and emotionally dangerous, so much so that stress tests like those by psychiatrists Holmes and Rahe can predict the likelihood of serious illness or an accident in the coming year based an individual’s level of current stress. 1 In his […]

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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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“Fine, Let Them Judge Me”: The Peace of Boundaries

Anita Mathias — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:17:53 +0000

Several years ago now, I was in a Bible study which had some very assertive people who were often unwell. And so there were endless rotas: to take meals around, clean their houses, do their ironing, or give them lifts. Now, I was over-burdened myself, but I didn’t want the leader to judge me as […]

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The Prophet Speaks Words Before They are True: Peace! (A Guest Post by Heather Caliri)

Anita Mathias — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 19:55:45 +0000

I was so pleased when Heather Caliri, author of Dancing Back to Jesus, offered me this beautiful guest post. Thanks so much, Heather! Bedtime went awry for no very good reason. I was done after a long day. Or: I decided it was a long day, and absolved myself from using kind words and polite […]

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On Razor-Blade Millionaires; the Moon on a Chain and Being Content with What you Have

Anita Mathias — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:11:00 +0000

I am listening to Gustave Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education on my iPod as I walk. It opens with a steamboat journey from Paris: “The hill on the right bank of the Seine dropped out of sight, and another one loomed closer on the opposite side. This hill was topped by trees dotted between bungalows with hipped […]

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Habakkuk: An Old Testament Prophet Moves from Questions and Anger to Peace

Anita Mathias — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:41:00 +0000

I dislike conflict, which means I used stuff resentment until I explode. And I have trouble doing conflict with God too. I was introduced to the Charismatic Movement when I was 17, and truly do believe that one should try to praise the Lord, anyway. Though that doesn’t preclude having it out with Him. But conflict with God […]

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To find God you need Silence

Anita Mathias — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:02:00 +0000

“He did not think that there was enough quiet in the world. To realise God you need silence. He loved spaces for silence, and places of silence. He encouraged the practice of retreats. He was an inspiring conductor of retreats. He thought of the religious communities as little havens of quiet scattered across society …” […]

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