Garden of Eden Archives

On the Icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos

09/08/2025

Sermon preached by Melissa Nassiff on Sunday, March 4, 2018 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Good morning! Once again March is Antiochian Women’s month, and throughout the Archdiocese, women are serving their parishes in some of the more visible ways: taking the collection, taking part in the Great Procession, ushering, assisting with communion, and giving a homily. Last year,

Sunday of the Holy Cross. The Image of the Cross

03/23/2025

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 4, 2021 I picked up my copy of the book MYSTICAL CHRISTIANITY: A PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN the other day. It is a brilliant book by the renowned psychologist John A. Sanford. I turned to the chapter where he speaks about the Cross and read something that piqued my interest. He spoke of the image of the Cross as a mandala. Now I

The Thirty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent: The Tree of Life Blossoms

12/22/2023

In the hymns for the prefeast of Christ’s Nativity, Jesus’ birth heralds a return to paradise. The Messiah is born and the gates of Eden are opened. The Savior comes and the tree of life blossoms. Paradise is not a place on the map. It is a condition of spirit. When a person knows God and lives in communion with Him, this is paradise. When a person does not know God and lives in communion

The Third Thursday of Great Lent: The Image of the Cross

03/16/2023

The Thirty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. The Tree of Life Blossoms.

12/16/2020

Messiness in the Modern World

07/13/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 26, 2015 Salvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, I believe that our aversion to messiness (in all things) is a peculiar affliction of

Nativity Devotion, November 14: In the Beginning

11/14/2017

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis in The Prayer Team In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3 Good morning Prayer Team! Unlike our American culture which celebrates from now until Christmas, with celebrations ending promptly on December 26,

ON PRAYER (Part II)

06/04/2015

FROM the foregoing we understand that by prayer the holy Fathers are not referring to occasional prayer, morning and evening devotions and grace at meals, but for them prayer is synonymous with unceasing prayer, the life of prayer. Pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5: 17) is to be taken as a literal command. Understood in this way, prayer is the science of scientists and the art of artists. The artist works in clay or colours,

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

09/03/2014

The Symbolic Tree What we are calling “the natural tree” represents the Scriptural expression of Biblical culture’s awareness of the intrinsic value of trees and of the central role played by trees in ecological balance, as well as the human use of trees for food, shelter, trade and commerce to satisfy the needs of the body. The “metaphoric tree” represents the figurative use of trees for the purpose of education, moral instruction, and the inculcation

Twenty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent: The Tree of Life Blossoms

12/10/2013

Archive

On the Icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos

Sunday of the Holy Cross. The Image of the Cross

The Thirty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent: The Tree of Life Blossoms

The Third Thursday of Great Lent: The Image of the Cross

The Thirty-Second Day of Christmas Advent. The Tree of Life Blossoms.

Messiness in the Modern World

Nativity Devotion, November 14: In the Beginning

ON PRAYER (Part II)

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

Twenty-Sixth Day of Christmas Advent: The Tree of Life Blossoms

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