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
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
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
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
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
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
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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
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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Lenten Lesson - Loving God through Prayer and Worship
OrthoAnalytika
In this lesson, Fr. Anthony talks about how necessary a prayer rule and proper worship are to knowing and loving God. Enjoy the show!
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Homily - St. Gregory Palamas Sunday
OrthoAnalytika
Humans are created with an innate capacity to revel in God’s glory, much like feeling the brief warmth of the sun after a long winter. This was intended to be our constant state, but we chose a different path. Yet, we still experience fleeting moments of transcendence—times of special warmth, belonging, and comfort that can arise in church, through music, gardening, or savoring well-earned rest after a hard day’s work. These moments stir something deep within us, a spiritual sense that hints at the divine. But we must ask: who is the God we encounter in these moments? Feelings,...
info_outlineRevelation, Session Six and Seven
Christ the Savior, Anderson SC
Chapters Two and Three – the letters to the seven churches
Sources:
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The translation of the Apocalypse is from the Orthodox Study Bible.
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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),
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Bishop Averky, The Epistles and the Apocalypse (Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Volume III. (Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2018).
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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).
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Jack Norman Sparks, The Orthodox Study Bible: Notes (Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1712.
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Venerable Bede, The Explanation of the Apocalypse, trans. Edward Marshall (Oxford: James Parker and Co., 1878).
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William C. Weinrich, ed., Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
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), 63–80.
The Things that had been Written to the Angel of the Church of the Ephesians
2:1. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: “Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
He discourses with the church through the angel just as if he were an educator <speaking> to the one being instructed….
2:2–5a. 2 I know your works and your toil and your patience, and that you cannot bear evil men, and you have tested those calling themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them false. 3 And you have endurance and patience on account of my name and did not grow weary. 4 But I hold it against you that you have left your first love. 5a Remember, therefore, [25] from where you fell, and repent and do the works <you did at> first.
Accepting the church in two ways, he reprimands it in one way. He has put the one <reprimand> in the middle and the achievements on either side...
2:5b–6. 5b If not, I will come to you soon and I will move your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent. 6 But this you have: that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
The movement of the church <means> to deprive them of divine grace…
2:7. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
… He promised to grant to such a victor in the war against the demons to eat of the Tree of Life, that is, to partake of the blessings of the future age, for, periphrastically, eternal life is meant by the Tree. …
The Things Declared to the Angel of the Church of the Smyrnaeans
2:8. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: “Thus says the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life.
The first as god, and the Last as having become man in the latter times, and having opened eternal life to us through his three-day death.
2:9a. I know your works and the tribulation and the poverty, but you are rich.
“Affliction and poverty in the bodily things, which you suffer patiently for my sake, being afflicted by the unbelievers and deprived of your possessions, but in spiritual things you are rich, having ‘the treasure hidden in the field’ of your heart.” [28]
2:9b. And the blasphemy of those who say they themselves are Jews and are not, but a synagogue of Satan.
… “Judah” means “confession.” [(Sept.) and they do not confess Christ]
2:10. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to put some of you in prison that you might be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
He says, “Do not fear the tribulation from the enemies of God through afflictions and trials, for <it will last only> ten days and not <be> long-lived.” For this reason, death must be despised, since in a little while it grants “the unfading crown of life.”
2:11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: The one who is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.”
… He will not be harmed by the second death of Gehenna. [29]
The Things Declared to the Angel of the Church in Pergamum
2:12–13a. 12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: “Thus says the one who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13a I know your works and where you dwell, where the throne of Satan is.
This city was full of idols…
2:13b. And you keep my name. You did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, that all-faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
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2:14–15. 14 But I have a few things against you: that you have <some> there keeping the teaching of Balaam, who in Balaam taught [30] Balak to put a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat meat sacrificed to idols, and to practice fornication. 15 Thus you also have those who keep the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which I likewise hate.
So it seems this city had possessed two difficulties: First, the majority was Greek, and second, among those who were called believers, the shameful Nicolaitans had sown evil “tares among the wheat.”8 …
2:16. Repent. If not, I will come to you soon, and I will war against them by the sword of my mouth.
Love for humankind is also in the threat. For he does not say, “against you,” but I will war against them, those who are incurably “diseased.”
2:17. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To the one who is victorious I will give to him to eat from the hidden manna, [31] and I will give to him a small white stone, and a new name written upon the stone, which no one knows except the one receiving it.”
The “Bread of Life” is the hidden manna, the One who descended from heaven for us and has become edible. …