OrthoAnalytika
Today we started our Fall Wednesday evening education series, during which we are working our way through Zachery Porcu's "Journey to Reality" from Ancient Faith Publishing. Today, after framing our discussion with the "trees walking" account of the healing of the blind man from the Gospel according to St. Mark (8:22-38 - see below), we cover the main topics in chapter one. Enjoy the show! ------ Trees Walking: the Problem of Discerning the Gospel Fr. Anthony Perkins; 03 September 2025 Text: Zachery Porcu, PhD. 2025. “Chapter 1 – What is Christianity” in Journey to Reality;...
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St. Matthew 19:16-26 (Rich Young Man) Hebrews 9:1-7 In this homily, Father Anthony reflects on the Gospel of the rich young man, reminding us that salvation is more than meeting a minimum standard—it is a lifelong journey toward holiness. He shows how Christ gently leads us beyond comfort, calling us to surrender our attachments, whether wealth, time, opinions, or fears, in order to live in love and trust before God. Through the practice of kenosis, or self-emptying, we learn to soften our hearts, grow in grace, and allow Christ to transform us into His likeness. NOTE: The prayer that Fr....
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St. Matthew 18:23-35 (The Unforgiving Servant) I Corinthians 9:2-12 In this homily, Father Anthony explores the calling of Christians not only to pursue personal holiness, but also to help cultivate a culture of holiness that shapes the life of the parish and the wider world. Using the Divine Liturgy as our pattern, he explains how intentional practices—such as the placement of prayers, offerings, and the way we relate to one another—form habits that naturally move us toward mercy, patience, and love. Reflecting on the parable of the unforgiving servant and St. Paul’s guidance to the...
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I Corinthians 4:9-16 St. Matthew 17:14-23 Fr. Anthony reflects on St. Paul’s call to imitation, teaching that we are shaped by those around us and must guard our hearts and minds against sin while cultivating holiness. He explains the spiritual power of the Antiochian pre-communion prayers, showing how their repetition trains our minds, transforms our souls, and unites the faithful as one body in Christ. Enjoy the show! --- Here is the Antiochian Orthodox Pre-Communion Prayer for the Divine Liturgy: I stand before the doors of thy temple, and yet I refrain not from my terrible...
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In this homily, we reflect on Christ’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand as a revelation of His abundant love and the Church’s calling to hospitality. Fr. Anthony explores how, through grace, even our limited offerings are multiplied to nourish the world, revealing a Kingdom where scarcity has no place. Enjoy the show! ------ MATTHEW 14:14-22 At that time, Jesus saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. This is what he does. He sees our suffering and heals us. What a blessing to have such a compassionate and capable God. When it...
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This recording of the Divine Liturgy (Christ the Saviour, Anderson SC) starts with the Great Doxology. The homily and reception of communion were cut from the recording. The sound quality isn't great - it was done with a phone sitting on an analoy off to the side. Of course, worship is always better in person; join us when you can!
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Title: Seeing Suffering Brightly: Faith, Discipline, and the Light of Christ Matthew 7:27-35; The Two Blind Men In this homily, Fr. Anthony shares Metropolitan Saba's teaching from the 2025 Convention that true spiritual vision begins not in denial of suffering, but in faithful endurance of it, transforming evil through thanksgiving and trust in God. Drawing on real martyrdom and lived faith in places like Damascus, he challenges us to see God’s love even in discipline and to witness to Christ with joy, courage, and unwavering hope. For a complete text of His Eminence, Metropolitan Saba's...
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Everything is Awesome! James 5:10-20; St. Matthew 9:1-8 (Riffing on St. Peter Chrysologus) Over the last few homilies, I have tried to share an approach to living that looks for the good, and the beautiful, and the true in all things so that we might have joy in them and nurture them towards greater glory. Today, I am going to continue this lesson by applying it to scripture. Of course, in this case we are not nurturing scripture to greater glory, but we always grow in our appreciation of its goodness, beauty, and truth so that those virtues might grow within us. Let’s go...
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The Sunday for the Fourth Ecumenical Council Titus 3:8-15; Matthew 5:14-19 Note: the recording includes a few seconds when Fr. Anthony's mind went apophatic and he forgot a critical detail. Real life is like that sometimes! First Council: Nicea in 325 (vs. Arius) "And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made: Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of...
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In this homily on St Matthew 8:5-13 (the faith of the Centurian), given on the Sunday after the Feast of American Independence (7/6/2025), Fr. Anthony continues to remind us of our calling to order creation, focusing on the evangelic method that looks for the good in something and working to make it better. Christ did not focus on the faults of the Centurian, but on what was good in Him so that it might become his defining characteristic and thus guide him (in Christ!) towards the better, the more beautiful, and the True. He encourages us to do this for our neighbor and our...
info_outlineHomily on the Talents
Main point: What do we with the riches God has given us? Multiply them! How? By investing all those riches in spiritual activities that provide a strong return on investment and having enough self-discipline not to waste them on activities that cause spiritual harm.
There are many kinds of riches that the Bible and Tradition teach about; today we’ll talk about spiritual and monetary riches.
How to Get a Good Return on Spiritual Riches
• Baptized Christians have all received riches (the grace of Baptism – a life in Christ!): what do we do with them?
• We do not all start with the same – we all have abilities and weaknesses
• But all are called to grow that which God has planted in our hearts
How do we grow them? It’s all about Orthopraxis. Discipleship. Evangelism. Everyone has to be involved in the ministries of the Church – and our parish must be set up to enable and encourage this.
How do we bury our talents? Not just by squandering them, but by refusing to develop and use them. By sitting on our hands. By seeking the minimum standard.
We need to grow the grace God has put into our hearts so that it overflows and brings comfort, joy, and healing to all those around us. We have to grow the investment of grace God made within our hearts. Orthodoxy is not about rules – Americans hate rules – it’s about getting a good return on the spiritual investment God made in us. Americans understand investments (and, while it may seem crass, it follows from the parable that Christ gave us). So…
• Encouraging us to pray in the morning and evening and at every meal time is sound spiritual investment advice;
• Encouraging us to come to services every Sunday and Feast Dayis sound spiritual investment advice;
• Encouraging us to read scripture and edifying literature everyday is sound spiritual investment advice.
• Encouraging every parish member should offer up their time in both worship AND ministry is sound spiritual investment advice.
• Extolling the benefits of tithing is giving us sound spiritual advice.
• Warning us that things like gossip, pornography, self-indulgence, hard-heartedness, and adultery are wicked sins and to be avoided, is sound spiritual investment advice.
Some people hear this – and I mean good people! – and they say “but Father… I don’t need to do all these things to be good. I’m nice. I already love people. I know that it is my duty to help my friends and my family and that is what I do. It comes naturally. I don’t need fasting and all that other stuff.” I LOVE hearing this! It is great to meet people who are born with such wonderful gifts. But being born with gifts doesn’t get them off the hook. My response to the way they rationalize their slothfulness goes something like this; “wonderful! God gave you FIVE TALENTS instead of just one or two – now you need to fast and do all that other stuff to invest those five and get five more!”
No one should mistake a naturally pleasant disposition or other natural attributes as some kind of grace they earned: these things are gifts from God and they must be developed. That’s what he is telling us today about getting into heaven. God expects more from those to whom He has given more – so get to work!
How to Get the Best (Spiritual Return) on Monetary Riches
But the Lord isn’t just teaching us about how to grow the grace He has given us. There is a lot to learn here and throughout the scriptures about what to do with our money. He tells us that everything that we have was given to us is for one purpose: growth in perfection. Growth in Christ. The healing of this world. The spreading of the Gospel. The increasing and superabundance of grace in our lives, our parish, and this world. As with spiritual gifts, not all of us are given the same gifts … but we are all called to grow what we have been given to the glory of God.
• Ten talents: These people have the possibility/ability to give up all their money and possessions and follow Christ. (e.g. the holy disciples and apostles). Not everyone has the ability to do this. Not everyone is strong enough. Thank God that some are. The witness of monks.
• Five talents: These people have too many God-blessed responsibilities to give up all their money and possessions, but they can offer up a large proportion of their income. Not everyone is strong enough to do this. This is only possible for people who have made a discipline of simplicity and budgeted towards giving and either have a large salary proportional to their needs or – much less likely - who have come into a windfall (joke about the lottery). Examples: Saint Joachim – 2/3; Zacheous: half plus; (and lest we think this is just for the rich) the widow’s mite.
• One talent – done right!!!: “what must I do to be saved” Orthopraxis! Follow the law and live a life a love. Give proportionally according to your income. Make sacrifices for the Gospel. Offer what you can and grow that grace!
Important caveat: for most of us, Orthodoxy requires balancing competing commitments. When it comes to money, it really comes down budgeting and making every dollar count. Family responsibilities and paying debts are Christian obligations. Duty done well is done to the glory of God. Our God is not a God of irresponsibility. We have to find the balance – but in finding that balance, we need to let Christian morality – and not vices like laziness, self-indulgence, or fear – be our guides. Saint Paul makes this clear in his second letter to the Corinthians (8:8-12 & 9:6-9; glossed a bit):
Now I want to tell you what God in his grace has done for the churches in Macedonia. Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, they have mixed their wonderful joy with their deep poverty, and the result has been an overflow of giving to others. They gave not only what they could afford but far more; and I can testify that they did it because they wanted to and not because of nagging on my part. They begged us to take the money so they could share in the joy of helping the Christians in Jerusalem. Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us, for whatever directions God might give to them through us.
[This reminds me of the statistics that show no correlations between wealth and the proportion that is given to charity – just look at the faithfulness of the people in “poor” churches!]
The people in this other church were so enthusiastic about helping out through sacrificial giving that we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to visit you and encourage you to complete your share in this same ministry of giving. You people there are leaders in so many ways—you have so much faith, so many good preachers, so much learning, so much enthusiasm, so much love… Now I want you to be leaders also in the spirit of cheerful giving.
I am not giving you an order; I am not saying you must do it or how much you should give … But this is one way to show that your love and dedication is real, that it goes beyond mere words.
You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus was: though he was so very rich, yet to help you he became so very poor, so that by being poor he could make you rich.
You were enthusiastic when you started down this path. Now let your early enthusiasm be equaled by your realistic action now. But hear this: if you are really eager to give, then it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t.
But remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much. Everyone must make up his own mind as to how much he should give. Don’t force anyone to give more than he really wants to, for God loves the cheerful giver. God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others. It is as the Scriptures say: “The godly man gives generously to the poor. His good deeds will be an honor to him forever.”
God loves a cheerful giver, one who offers up gifts of his own free will – without compulsion. Our lives – and the life of our parish – have to be modeled around this fact. We don’t do dues. Dues are compulsory, whether they are a few hundred dollars or an imposition of the more biblical tithe. The extortion of income is the work of highway robbers and governments – not the parish. So while some of us have the ability, discipline, and JOY to budget around a tithe, not everyone can. The command is to offer up what you can to the glory of God and building up of joy in your life.
Let me conclude:
The point is that all we have been given – both our spiritual and material gifts – has been given to us one purpose: the one thing needful.
If we invest all those things that have been put into our care: our time, our abilities, and yes, our monetary treasures, into the service of the Most High, then in the day when we are called to account for the way we lived lives here on earth, we will hear those words that we know so well, “well done good and faithful servant – receive now your crown!’
And if not? God cannot force us into paradise against our will. If we decided in our lifetime to follow the example of the servant who hid his talent, then we will receive the same reward he did. That’s the Gospel.
No matter how much – or little - we have been entrusted with, we have a choice; it is the same choice all people of all places and times are given. Here is how Joshua put back in his day (Joshua 24:14-15; with glosses):
So revere the One True God and serve Him in sincerity and truth. Put away forever the idols of your ancestors. Worship the One True God and Him alone. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the false gods your ancestors served or the false gods of the land in which you now live. It is your choice. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
The Christian parish must be full of men and women – no matter their station, sinfulness, or abilities – who have made that same choice.
“As for me and my household – that is to say, as for me and all of you – I know that we will serve the Lord.”