Homily - Palm Sunday
OrthoAnalytika
In this homily, Fr Anthony challenges us to reflect on our own expectations of God. Like the Jews, we often approach God with our own predefined ideas of what He should do for us. When our problems persist or even worsen, we are faced with a choice: either we try to control God and limit His power by confining Him to our expectations, or we allow Him to transform our lives in unexpected ways, leading us to a deeper relationship with Him. Enjoy the show!
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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
OrthoAnalytika
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!
info_outlineHomily for Palm Sunday
Philippians 4:4-9; John 12:1-18
How far are we willing to go for what is true?
How far are we willing to go for what is good (virtuous)?
How far are we willing to go for peace (not the cheap peace of appeasement, but the real peace of a battle well fought and a race well run)?
Imagine a world ruled by darkness. A place where there is no light. Where fear of the unknown and fear of injury have paralyzed people into inaction and have led them to accept all the injustices the rulers of the world of darkness impose on them. There may be some stories that some people tell about a bringer of light that would liberate them from the oppressive gloom; but in the meantime darkness reigns. For many, even the possibility of such a thing as light is outrageous; for them it is the myth and opiate of those who are too weak to accept the world as it really is. Of course, this attitude towards the light is the official dogma of the rulers of the darkness and they do what they can to mock and punish the dreamers and rabble-rousers who oppose it.
Then one day something miraculous occurs: the light-bearer comes.
As you can imagine, the first response was a jubilant awe. All those who had hoped for his coming ran to greet him. Children laughed and sang and delighted crowds thronged around him as he made his way into the city.
Today we are swept up in this same jubilation: it is Palm and Willow Sunday! We celebrate the coming of the Deliverer; after generations of oppression the source of Freedom has come into our midst!
But we know what comes next, not just because we know our history, but because we understand how things work: the rulers of this world – led by the prince of darkness, the deceiver – have no interest in freedom or light or truth or goodness. Quite the opposite. And what are these things – mere ideas - when compared to the reality and raw power of darkness and death? When so many of the oppressed preferred the peace of appeasement and the predictability of the status quo to the uncomfortable truths the light revealed and the challenge of difficult change that real virtue would now require.
The coming of the light threatened to expose not just the evil that had come to dominate the world, but the evil that resides in the heart of every man. No one can see this truth and remain satisfied with the world and themselves as they are. The choice is either change... or darkness. Is it any wonder that we preferred the darkness? That we cheered the hardest when we called out “crucify him, crucify him”? That we asked that the curse fall on us and on our children?
We are again at this same crossroads with the same choice to make: the light has come to a world of darkness. So I ask again:
How far are we willing to go for what is true?
How far are we willing to go for what is good (virtuous)?
How far are we willing to go for peace (not the cheap peace of appeasement, but the real peace of a battle well fought and a race well run)?