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Homily - Love is Impossible Good Work

OrthoAnalytika

Release Date: 09/21/2020

Homily - On Belief show art Homily - On Belief

OrthoAnalytika

This homily from Thomas Sunday emphasizes the point that God does not condemn doubt but invites honest seekers into deeper belief. True belief in Christ isn't just accepting facts, but trusting in His love, intentions, and power—similar to the trust found in all healthy relationships. Doubt, when motivated by a sincere desire for truth, can lead to greater faith, especially when brought into open, loving community. However, skepticism rooted in malice or apathy is spiritually harmful. Christ welcomes honest questions because they build relationship, but He opposes harmful, rigid belief used...

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Homily - Palm Sunday show art Homily - Palm Sunday

OrthoAnalytika

In this homily, Fr Anthony challenges us to reflect on our own expectations of God. Like the Jews, we often approach God with our own predefined ideas of what He should do for us. When our problems persist or even worsen, we are faced with a choice: either we try to control God and limit His power by confining Him to our expectations, or we allow Him to transform our lives in unexpected ways, leading us to a deeper relationship with Him. Enjoy the show!

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Lenten Lesson - Loving Our Enemies show art Lenten Lesson - Loving Our Enemies

OrthoAnalytika

Today, Fr. Anthony continues to keep it real while talking about the great challenge of loving our enemies.   Love your enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 1 Corinthians 13: 1 John 13:34 Romans 15:1a St. John Chrysostom:  [St. Paul] adorns love not only for what it has but also for what it has not. Love both elicits virtue and expels vice, not permitting it to spring up at all. St John Chrysostom: For neither did Christ simply command to love but to pray. Do you see how many steps he has ascended and how he has set us on the very summit of virtue? Mark it, numbering from the...

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Retreat on Beauty - Putting It All Together show art Retreat on Beauty - Putting It All Together

OrthoAnalytika

Fr. Anthony concludes his prestantation on beauty at the 2025 UOL Lenten retreat by connecting music with love. Music taps into and draws from something that is primal, foundational, and rational (word – bearing); so does love.  Music requires mastery of certain skills and concepts that require repetition to master; so does love.  Music improves when there are different voices represented; so does love.  Music works with dissonance to move us towards deeper truths; so does love.  Music often requires periods of silence for listening, anticipation, and appreciation; so...

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Retreat on Beauty - Fr. Roman Marchyshak on Music in Worship show art Retreat on Beauty - Fr. Roman Marchyshak on Music in Worship

OrthoAnalytika

Fr. Roman Marchyshak is the priest at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Trenton, NJ and teaches liturgical music at St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary.  In this presentation, he talks about the role music plays in the worship of the Orthodox Church, reminding us that it is not an adornment, but an essential element.  He had some of the seminarians from St. Sophia's sing selected pieces to illustrate his main points.  Enjoy the show!

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Retreat on Beauty - Introduction show art Retreat on Beauty - Introduction

OrthoAnalytika

This is the audio for the first part of the 2025 Ukrainian Orthodox League Lenten Retreat held on Saturday April 5th in Philadelphia. Beauty helps us understand Orthodox (INCARNATIONAL!) theology better and thus live more graceful lives.  It is also one of the best ways to do Orthodox Evangelism.  People come to us for many reasons, but an encounter with God is what they really long for.  Beauty is a special charisma of the Church – secular beauty is a pale imitation (or perversion) of that true beauty.  Beauty resonates with the built-in beauty receptors of our senses,...

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Homily - St. John of the Ladder on the Hard Work of Salvation show art Homily - St. John of the Ladder on the Hard Work of Salvation

OrthoAnalytika

On the Sunday of St. John of the Ladder, Fr. Anthony delivers a homily that encourages us to take our pursuit of joy, peace, and freedom from anxiety seriously. He begins by asking whether we truly want these things or if we expect them to come without effort, likening it to people desiring health or success without being willing to make the necessary sacrifices. He emphasized that true peace and joy require commitment, not idle desire, and must be pursued through effort, prayer, and fasting. Fr. Anthony critiqued the common temptation of chasing material security and success, such as the...

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Men’s Talk - Building a Safe, Healthy, and Holy Home show art Men’s Talk - Building a Safe, Healthy, and Holy Home

OrthoAnalytika

Fr. Anthony leads a discussion with the men of Christ the Savior's parish on the basics of leading a Christian home. Enjoy the show!

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Lenten Lesson - Loving Your Neighbor show art Lenten Lesson - Loving Your Neighbor

OrthoAnalytika

Still trying to “keep it real,” Fr. Anthony leads a class on the challenges that come when we try to love our neighbor. Enjoy the show!

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Homily - Your Cross Needs Love show art Homily - Your Cross Needs Love

OrthoAnalytika

Mark: 8:34-9:1. In this homily, Fr. Anthony discusses the true meaning of taking up one's cross in Christian life. He emphasizes that Christ's cross was not just a symbol of pain but of sacrificial love, where Jesus Christ gave Himself for the salvation of others. The act of following Christ involves denying personal desires to serve others, even when it's difficult or misunderstood. By sacrificing our time and efforts for others' well-being, we emulate Christ's example, aligning our actions with His purpose for eternal life. The homily highlights that true sacrifice is motivated by love and...

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Sunday after the Exaltation of the CrossGalatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1

(The Greatest Commandment) life has no meaning without a goal. Goals allow us to distinguish between what is useful and what isn’t; the right goal ensures that all our actions are virtuous.

 

This week restates this lesson. Listen closely:

And Jesus called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8: 34)

Do you see how this is just a restatement of the goal of “loving God and neighbor”?

The “self” that we must deny has to be properly understood or we will end up perverting the Scripture, pursuing the wrong goal, wasting our talent, and – as we are warned in today’s Gospel reading – losing our very soul/life. There are two main ways that the “denial of self” should be understood:

  • The denial of the self as a sacrificial action.Why do you think that the Old Testament is full of sacrifice? In part, it is because doing something worthwhile requires giving up something else. If I am saving my money so that I can buy a new computer or go on a nice vacation, then there are things that I have to give up – to sacrifice – along the way. If I am going to follow God, that is to say, if I am going to love Him and love my neighbor the way He does, then that means giving up or “sacrificing” all the other goals that I might have pursued. This is only fitting and logical: when someone accepts a 9-5 job, they give up doing other things they might have done during that time. When a couple gets married, they give up both the single life and the possibility of marrying anyone else. When we commit ourselves to following Christ and serving our neighbor – the two Great Commandments – then we are sacrificing all the other things we might have done.

  • The denial of self as commitment and hard work. When someone takes a job, they don’t just give up doing other things while they are at that job: they commit themselves to working hard to do that job well. When a couple gets married, they don’t just give up dating other people: they commit themselves to working hard to make their marriage joyful and productive. This takes constant effort; these people “deny themselves” to do their job well and to keep their marriages healthy. When we commit ourselves to following Christ and serving our neighbor, we aren’t just giving up all the other goals we could have committed ourselves to, we are dedicating ourselves to put real effort into living a life of love.


So why the big warning? Because today’s reading, like last week’s, comes with a big warning:

For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8: 35)

The bottom line is that you will waste and ruin your life if you pursue the wrong goals. Idolatry? Two masters? Temple? It’s all saying the same thing. Don’t waste your life. Live a life of virtue. Commit yourself to it, study how to do it well, and then work hard an sacrifice yourself for it. Parts of you will rebel – deny those parts. Other parts will enjoy it; this is the multiplication of your talents – take that joy and offer to God and share it with your neighbor … this is how you grow “into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

One of the ways that today’s reading can be misunderstood is to think that the “denial of self” means the denial of joy. Now I hope you see how ridiculous this is. Do not turn God into a monster: he is not trying to turn this world into a hell of misery but into a place where all his children have joyful life in abundance (John 10:10) – and He wants us to want and work for that, too.

The denial of self does NOT mean that we hate or neglect or selves; quite the opposite. This is made clear by the final verse we will cover in today’s homily;

For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul (life)?(Mark 8:36)

Love of self means doing what is good for the self; pursuit of the wrong goals brings destruction to our lives. That is not love, that is something else. You know people who have destroyed their lives through the pursuit of power, or of laziness and self-indulgence, or of the approval of the wrong people, or through drugs … this is what Jesus means when He warns that you can gain the world but lose your soul. People who have lived for the wrong goal may well “gain the whole world”, but all that effort has been counter-productive; it has not brought abounding joy, it has not brought joy to others.

So now that you understand this command of Our Lord, the challenge is to make it your primary motivation:

Deny yourself. Give up your life and live it for the Good News of salvation that is guaranteed to bring joy to you and to this world.