Class - The Architectural Beauty of Eden
OrthoAnalytika
From Eden to the ChurchBeauty, Architecture, and the Space Where God Dwells Christian architecture is not primarily about style or preference. It is about ordering space so that human beings learn how to dwell with God. The Church building is Eden remembered and anticipated—a place where heaven and earth meet, so that God’s people can be formed and then sent back into the world. Key Biblical Insights 1. Eden Was God’s Dwelling Place Eden is first described not as humanity’s home, but as God’s planted garden—a place of divine presence, beauty, and order. Genesis...
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Homily - The Green Hand of Hell
OrthoAnalytika
Luke 17:12-19; The Grateful Leper I've included my notes, but I didn't follow them, choosing instead to offer a meditation on the "go show yourself to the priest" part of the Levitical command and noting how we do the same - and will all do the same one day at the Great Judgment. Homily: Healing, Vision, and the Mercy of God Onee of the things that sometimes gives people pause—especially when they encounter it for the first time—comes from the Book of Needs, in the prayers the priest offers for those who are sick. If you have ever been present for these prayers, you may have...
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Class: The Beauty of Creation and the Shape of Reality
OrthoAnalytika
Beauty in Orthodoxy: Architecture I The Beauty of Creation and the Shape of Reality In this class, the first in a series on "Orthodox Beauty in Architecture," Father Anthony explores beauty not as decoration or subjective taste, but as a theological category that reveals God, shapes human perception, and defines humanity’s priestly vocation within creation. Drawing extensively on Archbishop Job of Telmessos’ work on creation as icon, he traces a single arc from Genesis through Christ to Eucharist and sacred space, showing how the Fall begins with distorted vision and how repentance...
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Homily - Repent and Burn (in a good way)
OrthoAnalytika
Homily: The Sunday after Theophany Hebrews 13:7–16; Matthew 4:12–17 This homily explores repentance as the doorway from darkness into light, and from spiritual novelty into mature faithfulness. Rooted in Hebrews and the Gospel proclamation after Theophany, it calls Christians to become not sparks of passing enthusiasm, but enduring flames shaped by grace, sacrifice, and hope in the coming Kingdom. ---- Today’s Scripture readings give us three interrelated truths—three movements in the life of salvation and theosis. First: darkness and light. Second: repentance as the way from...
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Homily - Repent, Transcend Boredom, and Change the World
OrthoAnalytika
Homily – Repent… and Change the World (Embrace Boredom) Sunday before Theophany 2 Timothy 4:5–8; St. Mark 1:1–8 This is the Sunday before Theophany, when the Church sets before us St. John the Baptist and his ministry of repentance—how he prepared the world to receive the God-man, Jesus Christ. John was the son of the priest Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, the cousin of the Mother of God. When Mary visited Elizabeth during her pregnancy, John leapt in his mother’s womb. But what we sometimes forget is what followed. While Zachariah was serving in the Temple, the angel...
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Homily - Our Herodic Responses to Christ
OrthoAnalytika
Homily for the Sunday after Nativity The Child Christ in the World—and in Our Hearts Gospel: St. Matthew 2:13–23 [Retelling the Lesson] God humbles Himself to save mankind. He leaves His rightful inheritance as God and becomes man, born as a child in Bethlehem. And how does the world receive Him? Is He born in a temple? In a palace? Places that might seem fitting for the Ruler of the Ages? No—He is laid in a manger, in a stable. And even that is not the worst of it. When the leaders of the day learn of His birth, do they submit to Him? Do they nurture and protect Him so that He may...
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Homily - The Name of Jesus
OrthoAnalytika
St. Matthew 1:1-25 Why was the Son of God commanded to be named Jesus—the New Joshua? In this Advent reflection, Fr. Anthony shows how Christ fulfills Israel’s story by conquering sin and death, and calls us to repentance so that we may enter the victory He has already won. --- Homily on the Name of Jesus Sunday before the Nativity In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “They named Him Jesus, because He would deliver His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Names matter in Scripture. They are never accidental. A name reveals identity, vocation,...
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Homily - The Pilgrimage to Peace
OrthoAnalytika
Fr. Anthony preaches on three types of pilgrimage and how they work towards our salvation.
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Homily - Do You Want to Be Healed? Letting God Rewrite the Story
OrthoAnalytika
Do You Want to Be Healed? Letting God Rewrite the Story Ephesians 8:5-19 Today, Fr. Anthony reflects on how the deepest obstacles to healing are often the stories we tell ourselves to justify, protect, and control our lives. Drawing on the Prophet Isaiah, the Gospel parables of the banquet, and the power of silence before God, he explores how true healing begins when we let go of our fallen narratives and allow Christ to reconstruct our story through humility, prayer, and repentance. The path of peace is not found in domination or self-justification, but in stillness at the feet of the Lord...
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Homily: Recovering Apostolic Virtue in an Age of Contempt
OrthoAnalytika
I Corinthians 4:9-16 St. John 1:35-51 In this homily for the Feast of St. Andrew, Fr. Anthony contrasts the world’s definition of success with the apostolic witness of sacrifice, humility, and courageous love. Drawing on St. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians, he calls Christians to recover the reverence due to bishops and spiritual fathers, to reject the corrosive logic of social media, and to return to the ascetical path that forms us for theosis. St. Andrew and St. Paul's lives reveals that true honor is found not in comfort or acclaim but in following Christ wherever He leads —...
info_outline From Eden to the Church
Beauty, Architecture, and the Space Where God Dwells
Christian architecture is not primarily about style or preference.
It is about ordering space so that human beings learn how to dwell with God.
The Church building is Eden remembered and anticipated—a place where heaven and earth meet, so that God’s people can be formed and then sent back into the world.
Key Biblical Insights
1. Eden Was God’s Dwelling Place
Eden is first described not as humanity’s home, but as God’s planted garden—a place of divine presence, beauty, and order.
- Genesis 2:8–9 — God plants the garden; trees are “pleasant to the sight.”
2. Eden Is a Garden and a Mountain
Scripture explicitly identifies Eden as elevated sacred space.
- Ezekiel 28:13–14 — “Eden, the garden of God… the holy mountain of God.”
3. Eden Is a Source of Life
Life flows outward from God’s dwelling.
- Genesis 2:10–14 — A river flows out of Eden and becomes four rivers.
4. Eden Is Not the Whole World
Eden is placed within creation, not identical with it.
- Genesis 2:8 — Eden is “in the east.”
- Genesis 1:28 — Humanity is commanded to “fill the earth.”
5. Humanity’s Original Vocation
Human beings are called to guard sacred space and extend its order outward.
- Genesis 2:15 — Adam is placed in the garden “to till and keep it.”
6. Gardens and Groves as Sacred Space
After the fall, God’s presence continues to be associated with cultivated places.
- Genesis 12:6–7; 13:18; 18:1 — God appears to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre.
- 1 Kings 6:29–32 — The Temple is carved with palm trees, flowers, and cherubim.
- Psalm 92:12–14 — The righteous are “planted in the house of the LORD.”
- Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 36:35 — Restoration is described as becoming “like the garden of Eden.”
7. Sacred Space After the Fall
God re-establishes Eden’s pattern through mountains and temples.
- Exodus 24:9–10 — God enthroned on Sinai.
- Psalm 48:1–2 — Zion as the mountain of the Great King.
8. The Church as Eden Continued
The Church gathers the patterns of Eden—mountain, garden, throne, and life-giving water—into one place so that God may dwell with His people.
9. Eden Fulfilled, Not Abandoned
Scripture ends with Eden expanded to fill the world.
- Revelation 21:3 — “The dwelling of God is with men.”
- Revelation 22:1–2 — River of Life and Tree of Life healing the nations.
Why Architecture Matters
- Architecture forms us slowly and quietly through repeated dwelling.
- Ordered, beautiful space trains us for patience, reverence, and stability.
- The Church is not an escape from the world, but a seed of the world’s renewal.
Takeaway
Architecture is theology you inhabit.
Eden is still the pattern—and the Church is where we learn to carry that pattern into the world.