Homily - Love That Refuses to Dominate
OrthoAnalytika
The Father Who Does Not ControlA Homily on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son St. Luke 15:11-31 In the parable of the Prodigal Son, our attention is often drawn to the repentance of the younger son or to the resentment of the elder. But before we look at either son, we must first look carefully at the father. What stands out immediately is not simply the father’s mercy at the end, but the way he loves throughout the story. The father gives an astonishing amount of freedom to his sons—but his love is not passive, negligent, or withdrawn. It is neither controlling nor indifferent. It is...
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Homily - The Publican, the Pharisee, and the Seeds of the Kingdom
OrthoAnalytika
Sanctifying the Moment: The Publican, the Pharisee, and the Seeds of the Kingdom Fr. Anthony Perkins; Luke 18:9-14 All of creation is good—and yet it was never meant to remain merely good. From the beginning, God made the world not as a finished product, but as something alive, dynamic, and capable of growth. Creation was designed to become better, to move toward beauty and perfection. Humanity was placed within it not as passive observers, but as gardeners, stewards, and priests—called to tend what God has made and lead it toward and into His glory. This brings us to the heart of...
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Retreat - Justifiable but Not Helpful: Discernment in an Age of Manipulation
OrthoAnalytika
In this pair of talks, Fr. Anthony examines why discernment so often fails in the Church—not because of bad faith or lack of intelligence, but because discernment is a matter of formation before it is a matter of decision. Drawing on insights from intelligence analysis, psychology, and Orthodox anthropology, he shows how authority, moral seriousness, and modern systems of manipulation quietly exploit predictable habits of perception, producing confidence without clarity. True discernment, he argues, is neither technical nor private, but ecclesial: formed through humility, ascetic practice,...
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Class - The Architectural Beauty of Eden
OrthoAnalytika
From Eden to the ChurchBeauty, Architecture, and the Space Where God Dwells Christian architecture is not primarily about style or preference. It is about ordering space so that human beings learn how to dwell with God. The Church building is Eden remembered and anticipated—a place where heaven and earth meet, so that God’s people can be formed and then sent back into the world. Key Biblical Insights 1. Eden Was God’s Dwelling Place Eden is first described not as humanity’s home, but as God’s planted garden—a place of divine presence, beauty, and order. Genesis...
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Homily - The Green Hand of Hell
OrthoAnalytika
Luke 17:12-19; The Grateful Leper I've included my notes, but I didn't follow them, choosing instead to offer a meditation on the "go show yourself to the priest" part of the Levitical command and noting how we do the same - and will all do the same one day at the Great Judgment. Homily: Healing, Vision, and the Mercy of God Onee of the things that sometimes gives people pause—especially when they encounter it for the first time—comes from the Book of Needs, in the prayers the priest offers for those who are sick. If you have ever been present for these prayers, you may have...
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Class: The Beauty of Creation and the Shape of Reality
OrthoAnalytika
Beauty in Orthodoxy: Architecture I The Beauty of Creation and the Shape of Reality In this class, the first in a series on "Orthodox Beauty in Architecture," Father Anthony explores beauty not as decoration or subjective taste, but as a theological category that reveals God, shapes human perception, and defines humanity’s priestly vocation within creation. Drawing extensively on Archbishop Job of Telmessos’ work on creation as icon, he traces a single arc from Genesis through Christ to Eucharist and sacred space, showing how the Fall begins with distorted vision and how repentance...
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Homily - Repent and Burn (in a good way)
OrthoAnalytika
Homily: The Sunday after Theophany Hebrews 13:7–16; Matthew 4:12–17 This homily explores repentance as the doorway from darkness into light, and from spiritual novelty into mature faithfulness. Rooted in Hebrews and the Gospel proclamation after Theophany, it calls Christians to become not sparks of passing enthusiasm, but enduring flames shaped by grace, sacrifice, and hope in the coming Kingdom. ---- Today’s Scripture readings give us three interrelated truths—three movements in the life of salvation and theosis. First: darkness and light. Second: repentance as the way from...
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Homily - Repent, Transcend Boredom, and Change the World
OrthoAnalytika
Homily – Repent… and Change the World (Embrace Boredom) Sunday before Theophany 2 Timothy 4:5–8; St. Mark 1:1–8 This is the Sunday before Theophany, when the Church sets before us St. John the Baptist and his ministry of repentance—how he prepared the world to receive the God-man, Jesus Christ. John was the son of the priest Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, the cousin of the Mother of God. When Mary visited Elizabeth during her pregnancy, John leapt in his mother’s womb. But what we sometimes forget is what followed. While Zachariah was serving in the Temple, the angel...
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Homily - Our Herodic Responses to Christ
OrthoAnalytika
Homily for the Sunday after Nativity The Child Christ in the World—and in Our Hearts Gospel: St. Matthew 2:13–23 [Retelling the Lesson] God humbles Himself to save mankind. He leaves His rightful inheritance as God and becomes man, born as a child in Bethlehem. And how does the world receive Him? Is He born in a temple? In a palace? Places that might seem fitting for the Ruler of the Ages? No—He is laid in a manger, in a stable. And even that is not the worst of it. When the leaders of the day learn of His birth, do they submit to Him? Do they nurture and protect Him so that He may...
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Homily - The Name of Jesus
OrthoAnalytika
St. Matthew 1:1-25 Why was the Son of God commanded to be named Jesus—the New Joshua? In this Advent reflection, Fr. Anthony shows how Christ fulfills Israel’s story by conquering sin and death, and calls us to repentance so that we may enter the victory He has already won. --- Homily on the Name of Jesus Sunday before the Nativity In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “They named Him Jesus, because He would deliver His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Names matter in Scripture. They are never accidental. A name reveals identity, vocation,...
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. …