Homily - Acquiring Peace and the Spiritual Gut Check
OrthoAnalytika
The Feast of All Saints Hebrews 11:33-40; 12:1-2; St. Matthew 10:32-33; 37-38; 19:27-30 After clearing up potential confusion about "leaving" families as a sure way to heaven, Fr. Anthony asks how we are doing with the gifts of the Passion, Resurrection, and Pentecost (THE Holy Spirit!) God has given us to assist us in our healing and perfection. He encourages us to do a gut check on how we are doing by looking at the degree to which criticism and praise pull us from our peace. Enjoy the show!
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Homily - Pentecost and the Gift of Communification
OrthoAnalytika
Pentecost: The Language of Love This episode explores Pentecost as more than a miracle of tongues—it's a call to unity through the divine language of love. The Holy Spirit empowers us to truly listen, love, and live in communion. Through grace, repentance, and the Eucharist, we are formed into the family of God—one in purpose, diverse in gift, united by love. Enjoy the show!
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Homily - The Sunday after Ascension
OrthoAnalytika
The Truth Matters This homily explores why truth is essential—in logic, relationships, and faith. It examines the unique role of religion, the danger of distorting truth (like Arius did), and the deep meaning of Christ’s incarnation, resurrection, and ascension. Standing on the Rock of Christ, we’re called to live in love and invite others to the truth God gives as a gift. Enjoy the show!
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Talk - Spiritual Fatherhood and the Temptation of Tyranny
OrthoAnalytika
In today's class, Fr. Anthony talks about spiritual fatherhood and how the health of the parish flows from the health of the priest and back. The talk included the temptation of tyranny, young-eldership (mladastarstvo), and people-pleasing. Enjoy the show!
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Homily - What Really Sustains Us?
OrthoAnalytika
John 4:5-42. In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about living water and secret food—not physical things, but spiritual truths. So here’s the big question: What truly motivates us? Is it money, health, happiness? Those things matter—but they don’t last. When life gets hard, they can’t sustain us. Jesus shows us something deeper. His true nourishment is doing God’s will—connecting with others, sharing love, offering grace. That’s the “living water” He gave to the Samaritan woman, and it transformed her life. And it can transform ours, too. Let’s find our purpose in loving...
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Homily - The Orthodox Way to Wellness
OrthoAnalytika
On Paralytic Sunday, Christ asks a man who had been sick for 38 years, “Do you want to be made well?” It’s a question that reaches beyond the Gospel and speaks directly to us. True healing—spiritual and physical—begins with recognizing our need, seeking real help, and committing to the path of recovery. Christ is the Great Physician, and the Church is His hospital. But healing isn’t automatic; it requires humility, trust, and obedience. As with the paralytic, Christ knows our pain and desires our healing. The question is: do we truly want to be made well?
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Homily - The Man Born Blind
OrthoAnalytika
In John 9:1–38, Jesus heals a man born blind, showing that suffering isn’t always caused by sin but can reveal God’s glory. St. John Chrysostom teaches that the man's blindness led to humility and spiritual insight, unlike the Pharisees who remained spiritually blind. The reflection calls us to open our eyes to God’s grace in everyday life, allowing ordinary things—like relationships—to become vessels of holiness through love and intention.
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Talk - Shortcuts to Sanctification
OrthoAnalytika
Today Fr. Anthony started out talking about some of the temptations that come with becoming Orthodox, but most of the conversation ended up being about the draw and danger of cults. Enjoy the show!
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Homily - Myrrhbearers
OrthoAnalytika
Today’s reflection centers on the Myrrhbearers — those who came to anoint Jesus’ body after His death. Their actions teach us a powerful lesson about love as duty rather than transaction or warm fuzzy. They approached the tomb thinking Jesus was still dead and knowing (!) that he was utterly unable to reward them for their sacrifices. But their actions found resonance with something deep and real - the Love that knows no death.
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Adult Education - Talking about Pascha
OrthoAnalytika
Fr. Anthony speaks about different liturgical traditions, their history and significance, especially Pascha. Enjoy the show!
info_outlineSt. Luke 8:5-15. In today's homily, Fr. Anthony speaks about how a marriage should function in an Orthodox context and how that translates to our life in the Church. Enjoy the show!
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Here's the homily I planned on giving before I called an audible.
Homily Notes: Tending the Garden of our Souls
St. Luke 8:5-15: The Gospel of the Sower
“Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride?
Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride?
Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride?”
“Have you accepted Christ?
Have you accepted Christ?
Have you accepted Christ?”
Our affirmation of these questions before our baptism, the sacramental participation that followed, and the fact that we are here today means that we are Christians. We have rejected the way of the world – which is ruled by Satan – and have become part of the New Humanity that is preparing to inherit the New World; a world that is uncorrupted by Satan and the sins of the Old Humanity.
To move away from eschatological and theological terms into the beautiful metaphors Christ gave us in today’s parable: the seed of perfection (Christ Himself!) has been planted in our souls.
A seed is a miraculous thing; it contains all the information needed for the growing of a perfect plant. The DNA is all there. A wheat seed has everything needed to grow up to be a perfect stalk of wheat. More amazingly, a small acorn can grow into an enormous tree. The seed of Christ that has been planted in our souls is jut like that: we have been given everything we need – all the information – to grow into perfect men and women, into saints, into little Christ’s… to grow into the kind of peaceful, loving, and productive humans we were conceived and born to become. The perfect seed is within our souls.
But is that enough? We have all planted many seeds in our lifetime. Good seeds. Good soil. And yet we know that if we are not careful, we will still end up with a terrible harvest of weeds and brambles.
Why? How does this happen?
We live in a world that is full of loose spores. The winds are full of the world’s little seeds. They, too, carry all the potential of full growth within themselves. At some point, some of these spores are bound to find their way into our gardens … and into the soil of our souls.
The corruption of our gardens may begin through inattention – a lack of what we call “nepsis” – but that doesn’t explain why we end up with a bumper crop of thistles and thorns, leaving the seed we originally planted weak or even completely dead. How did it happen? It certainly wasn’t the seed. And it wasn’t just that we weren’t paying attention – we always notice when something has changed in our gardens and in our lives.
It happened because we didn’t bother with the difficult work of weeding.
Weeding is such a judgmental term – it assumes a discernment that we have all but forgotten. It requires, for instance, the realization, that Church on Sunday is more important than sports or sleeping in; that Feast Days are even more worthy ways to spend vacation days than trips to the beach; that spending a few minutes in prayer is worth the sacrifice of a few minutes of facebook or television; and that chastity is better in every respect than the transitory joy of serial monogamy, pornography, and adultery.
New gardeners can’t tell a beautiful weed from beanstalk; they need to learn. We also need to learn. We need to realize
1. That there are such things as weeds;
2. That they are dangerous threats to our souls, our families, and our communities; and
3. That it is our responsibility as human beings (God’s imagers on this earth; the New Humans!) to pull them out.
Terrible and noxious things have made their way into our souls. We don’t like to call them weeds because some of them are pretty and it sounds so judgmental. But as Christ says, you know a plant by its fruit;vand the plants of this world may look nice for a while, but their fruit is death and damnation (see Luke 6:44).
The Tree of the Cross is the plant that rises from the well-tended garden of the Christian soul, and its fruit is eternal life.