Homily - All Saints
OrthoAnalytika
The Sunday of All Saints reveals the fruit of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit does not produce one type of saint but sanctifies every kind of person according to God's purpose. The saints differ in vocation, personality, and circumstance, yet all are united by the same Spirit who transformed ordinary human lives into icons of Christ. The question is not whether we are the "right kind" of person to become holy, but whether we will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify the life God has given us. --- Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. We celebrated the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. And...
info_outline
Homily: The God Who Gives US What We Need (Pentecost)
OrthoAnalytika
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; St. John 7:37-52; 8:12 Pentecost reveals the God who never ceases to act for our salvation, giving His people exactly what they need—from the Law at Sinai, to the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection, and finally the gift of the Holy Spirit. The kneeling prayers for the departed flow naturally from Christ's descent into Hades, for if Christ sought those held by death, His Incarnate Body, the Church, continues to seek them through prayer and love. We pray for the departed not because we possess a detailed map of the afterlife, but because Christians imitate...
info_outline
Homily - Sunday after Ascension
OrthoAnalytika
In this homily on Christ’s prayer “that they may be one,” Father Anthony reflects on humanity’s calling to communion and the tragic ease with which sin turns even good things into instruments of division. Drawing on the example of Arius and the divisions of the modern world, he argues that the deepest fractures in society begin not in institutions but in the human heart. The healing of the world therefore begins not with self-righteous outrage or victory over enemies, but with repentance, humility, holiness, and the difficult work of learning to love one another in Christ. Enjoy...
info_outline
Homily - Humility and Spiritual Sight
OrthoAnalytika
“I Once Was Blind”: Humility and Spiritual Sight St. John 9:1-38 In this homily on the healing of the man born blind, Father Anthony reflects on how Christ not only gives sight, but gradually heals the whole person. Though baptism opens our eyes to the truth of God and His Kingdom, we still struggle to see clearly through the distortions of pride, fear, anger, and self-justification. The path to true spiritual sight is therefore not certainty or condemnation, but humility, repentance, patience, and trust in the One who already reigns over the world. Enjoy the show! --- Today’s Gospel...
info_outline
Homily - From Justification to Repentance: The Samaritan Woman
OrthoAnalytika
On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, this homily reflects on the encounter between Christ and Saint Photini, focusing on the deeper moral psychology of repentance. It explores how we instinctively justify our sins and construct explanations to protect ourselves, even in the presence of divine truth. Drawing on Scripture and the witness of the saints, it shows how true healing comes not through self-defense, but through humility, repentance, and stepping fully into the light of Christ. Enjoy the show! --- From Justification to Repentance: The Samaritan Woman St. John 4:5–42 “He...
info_outline
Homily - The Paralytic and Moving from Explanation to Obedience
OrthoAnalytika
On the Sunday of the Paralytic, this homily explores Christ’s piercing question: “Do you want to be made well?” It examines our tendency to respond not with repentance, but with explanation—justifying our condition rather than opening ourselves to healing. Grounded in the Church’s therapeutic vision of salvation, it calls us to move beyond self-justification and into obedience, where Christ’s command becomes the source of our transformation. Enjoy the show! --- Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic John 5:1–15; Acts 9 Christ is risen! What effect do you have on...
info_outline
Homily - The Myrrhbearers, the Living Christ, and the Living Church
OrthoAnalytika
On the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, this homily examines the temptation to treat Christ as a figure of the past rather than the Living Lord. It explores how even faithful Christians can reduce Him to something studied at a distance—especially in an age of endless religious content. Grounded in the Church’s sacramental and communal life, the message calls us to encounter Christ where He truly speaks: in His Body. The result is both comforting and demanding, as the living Christ not only teaches, but calls us to repentance and transformation. Enjoy the show! --- Homily for the...
info_outline
Homily - From Doubt to Communion: What It Means to Believe in Christ
OrthoAnalytika
This homily reflects on belief as trust that creates communion and makes true life possible in Christ. Drawing on the encounter with Thomas, it shows how Christ patiently leads honest doubt into faith while calling us away from prideful questioning that blocks love. --- St. Thomas Sunday St. John 20:19–31 Does God hate doubt? Does He shame those who struggle to believe? No. He does something very different. Christ does not simply want us to know facts about Him. He wants us to know Him. Because He does not say, “I teach the truth.” He says: “I am the Truth” (cf. Gospel of John 14:6)....
info_outline
Homily - The Dangerous Joy of Palm Sunday
OrthoAnalytika
Philippians 4:4-9; John 12:1-18 Palm Sunday reveals both our love for Christ and our temptation to abandon Him when He does not meet our expectations. This homily invites us to see ourselves in the Gospel, to embrace the deeper work of transformation, and to follow the King who leads us not to comfort, but to life through the Cross. --- Palm Sunday Homily 2026 For the Jews two thousand years ago, today was the culmination of their long waiting: the Messiah had come to save them. “Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!” It is a...
info_outline
Homily - Cross the Digital Jordan and Find Peace
OrthoAnalytika
The Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt The life of St. Mary of Egypt shows that healing begins when we are willing to let go of what we think we cannot live without. Her struggle with memory and desire mirrors our own battles with distraction and constant stimulation. In these final weeks of Lent, we are invited to simplify our lives, endure the discomfort, and turn again toward the peace that comes from God. --- Today the Church gives us one of the most extreme lives in all of Christian history: St. Mary of Egypt. And if we are not careful, we will put her at a distance. We will say: “That’s not...
info_outlineRevelation 11
20 November 2024
Chapter 7
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).
Patrick Henry Reardon, Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), 53.
Fr. Patrick Reardon.
The final preservation of God’s elect was foreshadowed in their deliverance at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
This sealing with the mark of the true Paschal Lamb fulfilled the promise contained in that earlier marking of Israel with the sacrificial blood of its type (Ex 12:21–23). Both Ezekiel and Exodus are important for the understanding of this seal. Ezekiel’s reference was to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, of which everyone was aware who saw the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The passage in Exodus 12 had to do with the last of the ten plagues visited upon Egypt, the slaying of the firstborn sons. This sealing in Revelation, then, involves a new Exodus, in which God’s people will be delivered, not left to share in the sin of the earthly Jerusalem.
Fr. Lawrence Farley: What is this seal? The image is drawn from Ezekiel 9. In this passage, angels were to slay all in Jerusalem that rebelled idolatrously against Yahweh. But before they began their dreadful task, one angel went through the city and, at the divine command, put “a mark” (in Hebrew a tau) on all who were faithful (Ezek. 9:4). To be thus marked on the forehead is to enjoy the protection of God and an immunity from coming judgment….
This time of great tribulation seems to last throughout the age, for in Matthew 24:29 the Second Coming is said to occur “immediately after the tribulation of those days.” The parallel version of this verse in Luke 21:24 seems to confirm this, for it describes what Matthew refers to as “great tribulation” as a time of “great distress upon the land … [the people] will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”—that is, until the end of the age. Even the original prophecy of Daniel 12 states that the “time of tribulation” will be followed by the resurrection of the dead, when “many of those who sleep in the dust will awake” (Dan. 12:2).
It would seem then that in Matthew 24 the “great tribulation” is the age-long time of suffering for Israel that began with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70…
This understanding of “the great tribulation” (7:14) as the suffering of the Church throughout the age explains too the difference in the two crowds mentioned in this chapter. In 7:1–8, John receives a vision of the Church on earth, sealed and protected by God in preparation for their entering the final time of conflict. It is the Church of the final days. In 7:9–17, however, John sees a vaster multitude. This crowd comprises, not just the Church of the final days, but the Church gathered throughout all the centuries, coming from “the great tribulation,” the age-long struggle with the world. Unlike the former crowd, this multitude is vast beyond counting, stretching into the horizons of heaven. It is the Church glorified at last, fresh from its victorious struggle, an overwhelming testimony to the power of God.