Homily - Rejoice That Your Names Are Written in Heaven
OrthoAnalytika
St. Luke 10:16-21 When the seventy disciples return rejoicing in their spiritual victories, Jesus directs them toward an even greater joy: belonging to God. Drawing on St. Cyril of Alexandria’s reflections on Luke 10:16-21, we explore how Christ teaches us to serve with humility, face evil with courage, and receive wisdom with a teachable heart. Through success, weariness, and struggles that persist, His constant love gives us hope to take the next faithful step.
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Homily - Good Works and Fruitless Arguments
OrthoAnalytika
Titus 3:8-15; St. Luke 8:8-15 Drawing on St. John Chrysostom’s reading of Titus 3:5-15, Fr. Anthony explores how the mercy we have received from God should bear fruit in practical care for others. St. Paul calls us to turn away from fruitless disputes, receive correction with humility, and take initiative in meeting urgent needs. Through these ordinary acts of generosity, God teaches us to love and binds His people together. Enjoy the show!
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Catechism: Scripture and Tradition
OrthoAnalytika
How do we recognize and live the apostolic faith? In this parish class, Fr. Anthony explores Scripture’s place within Holy Tradition, how the Church received the biblical canon, and how we read the Bible to know Christ and follow Him. Questions from participants help connect these teachings with prayer, worship, and everyday Christian life.
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Homily - Sowing Mercy: Giving Without Keeping Score
OrthoAnalytika
II Corinthians 9:6-11; Luke 6:31-36 Reflecting on II Corinthians 9:6–11 and Luke 6:31–36, Fr. Anthony explores cheerful giving through the asceticism of relationships. Money is one gift we are called to share, but so are our attention, patience, forgiveness, and kindness. Drawing on the Church Fathers and the image of sowing seed, he considers what happens when we wait for others to deserve our mercy or attach an expectation of repayment to our love. Christ calls us to give even when gratitude never comes, trusting that God is cultivating mercy within our own hearts. The homily...
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Catechism: The Asceticism of Relationships
OrthoAnalytika
This concludes the asceticism portion of a catechetical series, following lessons on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It explores how everyday relationships train us to love through listening, patience, forbearance, and bearing one another’s burdens. Drawing on Scripture and practical pastoral examples, it connects spiritual discipline with kindness, forgiveness, and gentle correction. It also explains how love can include clear boundaries and how repentance helps us take responsibility for our own conduct. I used an AI voice to read the essay summary of the class rather than publish the...
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Homily - Remember Who Dwells in You
OrthoAnalytika
II Corinthians 6:16–18; 7:1 Holiness is real, and the people around us live with the consequences of what we are becoming. Drawing on 2 Corinthians and Saint John Chrysostom, we explore how pride can corrupt even our good deeds—and how remembering Who dwells in us can teach us to repent, give with mercy, and become a blessing to our neighbors. You can read more on this at OrthoAnalytika.org. Enjoy the show!
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Catechism: The Asceticism of Money
OrthoAnalytika
What is our relationship with money teaching us to love? Fr. Anthony explores tithing and almsgiving as ascetic practices that expose our weaknesses and train us in generosity, self-control, and trust in God. Drawing on Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick’s six reasons for tithing, he considers how giving supports parish ministry, how good work bears a double benefit, and why learning to receive can be as challenging as learning to give. This class was given at Christ the Saviour in Anderson, SC, on 24 September 2026.
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Homily - The Way Is Not the Law
OrthoAnalytika
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1 St. Paul teaches that the Law could protect, teach, and prepare God's people, but it could not give the new life that comes through Christ. The Orthodox Church gives us an extraordinary Way of prayer, fasting, worship, and tradition that forms us for holiness—but especially when we come to that Way later in life, we can be tempted to master its practices, turn the means into ends, and measure ourselves and others by them. On the Sunday after the Exaltation, we are reminded to be patient with the work of grace: the goal is not to become exceptionally good...
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Catechism: Fasting, Freedom, and the Music of Love
OrthoAnalytika
Fasting is about much more than changing what we eat: it is part of the Church’s training in freedom. Drawing on Scripture, the ascetic tradition, and the image of musicians learning to listen, restrain themselves, and play in harmony, Fr. Anthony explores how fasting retrains our desires so that they no longer rule us. The goal is not deprivation or impressive self-control, but the freedom to love, to live in communion, and to join the beautiful music God is making of His creation. This is the recording of the class given at Christ the Saviour in Anderson SC on 9/16/2026. You...
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When Good Things Get in the Way of Christ
OrthoAnalytika
Galatians 6:11-18; John 3:13-17 The bronze serpent was given by God for the healing of His people, but when Israel began treating the gift as though it possessed holiness in itself, Hezekiah destroyed it as Nehushtan—a mere piece of bronze. St. Paul confronts a similar temptation in Galatians, warning Christians not to mistake even good and God-given practices for the new life that comes only through union with Christ. This homily considers how Orthodox rituals, customs, cultures, and identities can form us in holiness without becoming substitutes for the One toward whom they are meant to...
info_outlineThe 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 the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end."
Second Council: Constantinople in 381 (defend the Holy Spirit).
Finished our Creed; Holy Spirit, the Church, Baptism, Resurrection, Life in the age to come.
Third Council: Ephesus 431 (vs. Nestorius – she gave birth to the man Christ; Christotokos).
Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man.
Because Jesus was true God of true God, the Virgin Mary gave birth to God; thus she should be called Theotokos.
Fourth Council: Chalcedon in 451 (vs. Nestorianism and the Abbot Eutyches and the Alexandrian Patriarch Diasocurus (recent robber council)
The Fathers accepted the message sent by Pope Leo, which Dioscorus had abstained from reading at his robber Council in Ephesus. In the message, The Pope distinguishes clearly between the two natures, emphasizing the presence of the two natures in one hypostasis.
Among the most important conclusions of the Council was that Christ is “perfect God and perfect Man. A true God and a true Man. Equal to the Father in Godhead and equal to us in humanity, like us in everything except in sin. He was begotten from the Father as God pre-eternally and in the last days He was born of the virgin Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos), according to humanity. He is one. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord who must be confessed in two natures united without confusion nor change, without division nor separation. He was not divided into two persons but he has always been the Only Begotten God the Word and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
In this Chalcedonian definition, the Fathers of the Council re-emphasized the Creed. They also emphasized two other important things:
· The unity of the person in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is indicated in the “he is one and the same”. The Lord Jesus Christ is One. He is the Word of God eternally born from the eternal Father before the ages, and born from Mary in humanity.
· That the two natures in Christ sustain their properties amidst the unity of the person. The word became Flesh assuming all the Human Nature except “sinning”, without giving up or abandoning his Divine Nature.
Application
The Church Fathers chose a gospel to be read in relation to this Council. It is Christ’s saying: “You are the light of the world”.
Not just the physical light, but the spiritual light.
One of the things that the spiritual light is that we can be full of it ourselves; that we can carry God within us and He can become the light through which we see one another.
Not the light of ego or self-confidence; this is a shortcut which will lead us into division (heresy); not the heresy of Nestorius or Eutechius, but the witness of a proud and divisive spirit that actually drives the self and others away from the true light – even while using pious words of Scripture and the Fathers.
This true light is helps us see one another. The Lord says after that: “let your light shine on people so that they can see your work and glorify your Father in the heavens”.
This is done not by pious strutting or false humility; but by the way we see and connect with others in the light; by the way we avoid being contaminated by giving in to the dark tempations of the world; and by sharing the same kind of sacrificial light that the Source of Light did when He became perfect man.
That is how we can live as a real family with God in heaven as our Father. We avoid sin; and we love one another.
This way we can make God’s Will come true. The gospel which we heard was chosen to describe the Holy Fathers (whose number is 630) of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon. These Fathers were the light of the world in both their time and ours as well. We abide by their teachings which were handed down to us. By their teachings we are able to avoid the darkness of heresy.
Let us be like them. Let them be our example and model, through Christ, who lives in them, that He might dwell in us too.
See https://www.antiochpatriarchate.org/en/page/1155/ for a more thorough treatment.