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Brief poetic meditations on the great Christian and Biblical themes by writer and blogger, Anita Mathias. I am currently meditating through the Gospel of Matthew, a meditation a week. Scripts on Anitamathias.com Please check out my memoir, Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (and widely available internationally).
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Christ's Great Golden Triad to Guide Our Actions and Decisions
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Send us a Text Message. Christ’s theological and political enemies try, always try, to catch him out with multitudes of trick questions. Which is the greatest commandment in the law? they ask, craftily, ready to make a case for the one he does not choose. And from the morass of the 613 commands in the Torah, Christ chooses just two. The great and f…
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How Jesus dealt with hostility and enemies
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Send us a Text Message. Jesus, wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove, brave as a lion. Outraged at those who attempted to make money off people’s faith and longing for God, he rampages through the temple, overturning the tables of the moneychangers. He heals, he teaches; he’s proclaimed as Messiah. And he incurs the wrath of his old enemies, the chie…
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Send us a Text Message. So, Joseph, intending to quietly break up with his fiancée, Mary, found pregnant, though not be him, is assured by an angel that she had conceived by the power of God’s spirit, and the child would be the long-awaited Messiah, who would deliver people from the chokehold of their sins. And Joseph is not afraid, and lightning-b…
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For Scoundrels, Scallywags, and Rascals—Christ Came
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Send us a Text Message. Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law, Judah. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, who was raped by David. Jacob, scammer and inheritance thief! Solomon, with 300 concubines and 700 wives. They were all among the chosen ancestors of Jesus. From them, he came. Iraqis, Canaanites, Moabites, Hittites, Amm…
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How to Lead an Extremely Significant Life
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Send us a Text Message. So counter-cultural were Jesus’s values, that even those who lived with him continuously for three years could not fully grasp them. So his spirited apostles, James and John, whom he called “The Sons of Thunder,” get their mum to ask him for the places of the greatest prestige and visibility, on his right and left, in his co…
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Don’t Walk Away From Jesus, but if You Do, He Still Looks at You and Loves You
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Send us a Text Message. So Jesus makes a beautiful offer to the earnest, moral young man who came to him, seeking a spiritual life: Come, follow me. Remarkably, the young man claimed that he has kept all the commandments from his youth, including the command to love one’s neighbour as oneself, a statement Jesus does not challenge. The challenge Jes…
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Send us a Text Message. https://anitamathias.com/2023/09/07/how-to-find-the-freedom-of-forgiveness/ How to Find the Freedom of Forgiveness Completely letting go of anger and resentment and forgiving is an emotional transaction as well as a decision of the will. We discover that we cannot command our emotions to forgive and let go of anger, just as …
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The Silver Coin in the Mouth of a Fish. Never Underestimate God
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Send us a Text Message. So, the temple taxmen come for Jesus and Peter. And Jesus, who repeatedly referred to his powerful body as God’s temple on earth, decides to pay anyway, to avoid a scandal over something trivial--for him. And so, he instructs Peter, a professional fisherman with boats, and massive nets, to catch a fish with a line and hook, …
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Following Jesus Is Costly and the Very Best Thing We Can Do
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Send us a Text Message. Jesus is blazingly honest about the cost of following him. We can no longer follow ourselves, or be driven by our prideful or self-indulgent desires. We submit our wills to a greater, phenomenally brilliant will, and accept His assignments for our day, and our life. His assignments, “the cross”, so to say, involve the discip…
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Persistent Prayer Turns Christ’s Silence, His “No,” and “Absolutely Not” to “Yes!”
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Send us a Text Message. The story of an amazing, persistent, feisty woman who argues with Jesus, and contradicts Jesus until his No turns to Yes. Jesus praises her for her faith, one of the handful of times Jesus praises humans... and it's almost always for their faith, their honesty, or their ability to hear from the Spirit. My memoir: Rosaries, R…
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Send us a Text Message. Character-building difficulty and uncertainty comes for each of us, when it feels as if we are tossed in a boat on a stormy sea, buffeted by waves, with the wind against us. And in the encircling gloom, Christ whispers the same words with which he reassured his storm-tossed disciples, “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid…
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On Trading Everything to Gain Life-Changing Hidden Treasure
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Send us a Text Message. Jesus says that following him is like discovering priceless treasure hidden in a field. The finder would joyfully sell everything to buy it, as should we! And so he speaks of living in the Kingdom of God, living with him as our High King and Lord, as a treasure, worth trading everything for. It's described as experiencing pe…
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The Spirit Gives Us Creative Life-Giving Words
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Send us a Text Message. (The meditation on Matthew 12:22 begins at 6:01.) On using words to light a fires of inspiration and joy, not devastation, as the Apostle James describes! Words—can inspire, set us on fire, delight… They can also "set the whole course of one's life on fire," as the Apostle James dramatically says, destroying precious friends…
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Jesus Promises Us Rest (and an Easy Yoke)
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Send us a Text Message. (The meditation on Matthew 11:28-29 begins at 6:42.) One of the many literary devices Jesus uses is paradox, as when we offers the weary and burdened rest--by bearing his yoke. Bearing the yoke of Jesus means surrendering our freedom to say and do what we want. It means never committing to things before a chat with him. It m…
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Believing Is Seeing (Miracles). “According to Your Faith, Let It Be Done to You.”
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Send us a Text Message. Meditation on Matthew 9:27-30 begins at 5:28. Jesus was the only person in the Bible who restored the sight of blind men. The two blind men called out a simple prayer, known as the Jesus prayer, “Jesus, have mercy on us. And their faith activated a miracle when Christ replied, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” An…
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Christ Knows the Best Way to Do What You Are Best At
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 4:49.) Simon Peter was a professional fisherman. And Jesus keeps teaching him, again and again, that he, Jesus, has greater mastery over fishing. And over everything else. After fruitless nights of fishing, Jesus tells Peter where to cast his nets, for an astounding catch. Jesus walks on wate…
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Don’t judge others. Transform yourself by self-examination!
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 5:25.) I'm meditating through the Gospel of Matthew. "Do not judge," Jesus says, "and you too will escape harsh judgement." And so once again, he reiterates a law of human life and of the natural world—sowing and reaping. Being an immensely practical human, Jesus realises that we are often mo…
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'Do Not Worry': Jesus Speaks to Those Worried About Not Enough Food (or Too Much Food!)
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 4:48.) Jesus advised his listeners--struggling fishermen, people living on the edge, without enough food for guests, not to worry about what they were going to eat. Which, of course, is still shiningly relevant today for many. However, today, with immense societal pressure to be slender, alon…
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Jesus Promises Blessing and Happiness to the Merciful
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 4:22.) Meditating on a “beatitude.”… Happy, makarios, or blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, articulating the laws of sowing and reaping which underlie the universe, and human life. Those who dish out mercy, and go through life gently and kindly, have a happier, less stressful experience of…
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The Power in Christ’s Resurrection. For Us. Today
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 3:48.) “Do not be afraid,” is the first sentence the risen Christ says. Because his resurrection frees him from the boundaries of space and time, in each room we enter, Christ is with us--and his Spirit, who helps us change our hearts, our characters, and our lives. The seismic power which ra…
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God’s Unique, Transforming Call and Vocation for each of us
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 2:55.) God who is always speaking, calls each of us to a specific, life-long task. The call uses the gifts we have, and new gifts, called an anointing, given to us at the point of call. Our calls are often revealed progressively; hearing a call, alas, does not guarantee success by any worldly…
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Change your Life by Changing How You Think
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 2:54.) Christ calls us to metanoia, or repentance, literally, thinking differently. Let's view our contemporary bugbears of body shape, diet, exercise & fasting with the energy of the new transformed mind of Christ My memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India UK USA Bl…
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Do Not Be Afraid--but Be “As Wise as a Serpent.”
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 2:29.) On Being Wise as a Serpent, but Blameless as a Dove. Today's episode considers the narrow line between acting out of fear--which leads to foolish results, and acting with wisdom and prudence, which leads to excellent results. We’ll consider Jesus's command to be as wise as a serpent, b…
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 1:49.) Matthew's genealogy of Christ includes many with colourful sexual histories--Rahab, the prostitute, Tamar who tricked her father-in-law into sex, the married Bathsheba who slept with adulterous King David, Solomon of many wives and concubines--from such the Lord Jesus Christ came. And …
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 1:45) In Isaiah's ecstatic vision, angels surround God singing, "The whole earth is full of God's glory." And it still is. When our hearts are downcast, seeing this earth, bathed in the light of God's glory, fill us again with a little bit of joy, a little bit of hope, and a little bit of pea…
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Send us a Text Message. (Scriptural meditation begins at 5:44.) Mindfulness is slowing down, and becoming aware of the presence of God, our Father, with us in every room we enter. It is remembering Christ, who walks with us. It is awareness of the presence of the Spirit who, on request, guides and teaches us. Check out the podcast transcript at htt…
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