Homily - Beauty & Repentance
OrthoAnalytika
The Sunday before Theophany On Repentance and Its Relationship to Beauty and Love 2 Timothy 4: 5-8; St. Mark 1: 1-8 “Behold, I will send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight;” After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Sandals – he knew humility (despite the many temptations he faced for pride!). The...
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Homily - Herod (and us) from temptation to possession
OrthoAnalytika
Matthew 2: 13-23 (The Slaughter of the Innocents) Herod (and us): from temptation to possession Five Steps of Sin The temptation (logismoi) occurs. We are NOT accountable for this. Interaction with the thought – what are the options? What would it look like? In his summary of Orthodox Spirituality in Mountain of Silence, Fr. Maximos (now Mp. Athanasios of Limassol) says that this is not sin, either. I disagree – a symptom of the disease we have is that it is all but impossible for us to imagine possibilities objectively. Consent to do the sin....
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Homily - Seeing our Ancestors in Christ
OrthoAnalytika
Sunday before the Nativity Hebrews 11:9-10,17-23,32-40 St. Matthew 1:1-25 After giving a refresher on motivated reasoning, Fr. Anthony notes how much context affects what we think about our ancestors from the genealogy of Christ. He then encourages us to tip the scales of our judgment so that we are more charitable towards people/things we are inclined to dislike, more skeptical towards people/things we are inclined to like, and generally more loving towards all. Enjoy the show!
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Introduction to Chanting - Class 7
OrthoAnalytika
Today Fr. Anthony uses the simple theory of reading (word recognition x decoding -> reading comprehension) to talk about chanting and why it is so difficult for those new to Byzantine chant to learn it (because they do not have the equivalent of word recognition), especially if they cannot read music (because they have neither the equivalent of word recognition nor the ability to decode). Enjoy the show!
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Bible Study - Revelation Session 11
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Revelation 11 20 November 2024 Chapter 7 Lawrence R. Farley, The Apocalypse of St. John: A Revelation of Love and Power, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2011). Patrick Henry Reardon, Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), 53. Fr. Patrick Reardon. The final preservation of God’s elect was foreshadowed in their deliverance at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This sealing with the mark of the true Paschal Lamb fulfilled the promise contained in that earlier marking of Israel...
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Homily - Discerning Molehills from Mountains
OrthoAnalytika
Sunday of the Forefathers. 2 Timothy 1:8-18; St. Luke 14:16-24 In this homily (that Fr. Anthony would have preferred audibling to his deacon - if only he had one!), Fr. Anthony challenges us to be strong like the three holy youths but not to put ourselves in the fires of our own hells by making mountains out of molehills. Or something like that. He really needed some sleep, bless his heart! Enjoy the show!
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Homily - A Simple Theory of Reading & Theosis
OrthoAnalytika
In this homily on Ephesians 2:14-22, Fr. Anthony uses the Simple Theory of Reading to teach about why Byzantine Chant - and theosis - are so difficult, why we need a change of heart more than new words, and how the Church is the solution to our existential crisis. Enjoy the show!
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Bible Study - Revelation Session 10
OrthoAnalytika
Revelation 10 04 December 2024 Revelation 5:1 - Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, ed. David G. Hunter, trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, vol. 123, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011), 85–112. o can stand?” Loosening of the First Seal 6:1. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living beings saying, with a voice like thunder, “Come!” And here the good order of those in heaven is shown, from the first orders coming down to the second. Thus, from one of the...
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Interview: Fr. Adam Roberts on Pastoral Counseling
OrthoAnalytika
Today Fr. Anthony talks with Fr. Adam Roberts about his pastoral counseling practice. Fr. Adam is the priest of St. Paul Orthodox Church in Katy TX, the Dean of St. Athansius College, a co-founder of Camp St Thekla, the author of several books, and has a Masters of Theology in Pastoral Counseling from the University of Balamand. In his counseling, he has counseled married couples as well as youth and young adults who are struggling with purpose and identity. . Enjoy the show!
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Homily - The Long Slow Slog of Salvation
OrthoAnalytika
Luke 18:35-43. Once again demonstrating that there is some overlap between a homily and a hostage situation (30 minutes!), Fr. Anthony talks about the life in Christ being less a moment of pure enlightenment and more about turning the long, slow slog of life into a graceful movement from joy to greater joy. Enjoy the show!
info_outlinePalm Sunday Homily.
Where do we get our spiritual strength? What is the source? Is our spiritual health fragile and dependent on the circumstances, or is it robust?
Do the events and people in our lives “damage our calm”, or do we have the kind of “peace that passes all understanding” guarding our hearts?
The default setting is for our calm to be defined by the state of our ego; our pride.
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When we feel insulted or taken for granted, our peace is threatened and our joy diminishes.
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When people show appreciation for us, or praise us, we feel serenity and our joy abounds.
This really is a litmus test for our spiritual maturity: how do we respond to insults and a lack of appreciation; and how do we respond to praise.
If deepest state of being is offset by these things, then we have work to do.
The easy way: surround ourselves with the right kind of people! (safe places?)
A bit harder: mental games. Learn to write off or ignore criticism and look for positive things to cling to. This can include using theological ideas: “If God be for me, then who can be against me”; “I am a child of God; it's not my fault if these sinners don't see that.” Also games for praise. Another way is to just check out - lots of ways to protect our ego.
But learning to hear criticism and praise objectively (and not through the needs of our ego) is necessary for our improvement!
God wants to have joy, and to have that joy in abundance; irrespective of our situation.
The God-man Jesus Christ demonstrated this in the events we are now celebrating:
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Praise: Palm Sunday
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Criticism: His Trial and Passion.
In neither case was He altered by them. His emotions were affected, but His sense of self and His sense of purpose was unchanged. Because He was never separated Himself from the Light and Truth that are themselves unchanging.
AND THAT IS THE ANSWER FOR US TO. To have Christ in us and us in Him; because no matter how much we work on them and no matter how we change our environment to make it easier for us to be content and happy, there is one even that our ego's can NEVER be strong enough to overcome...
Death. It faces us all. It faced Jesus. But He overcame it and through Him we can overcome it, too.
But only if we rely on Him and not our egos. And we can test how we are doing by looking at how our joy is affected by criticism and praise.
May God give us the courage to live in Him and Him in us so that we may overcome death and sin.