OrthoAnalytika
After reading part of Philippians 2, Fr Anthony talks about the work we are called to do, how our disordered minds thwart it, and what we can do about it. Enjoy the show!
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Fr. Anthony talks with Dn. Basil about recent findings on religion and the authoritarian personality. Dn. Basil in a a professional therapist; his practice is Mount Tabor Counseling (mounttaborcounseling.com). Enjoy the show!
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The Sunday of Orthodoxy: Embrace the Fullness of the Faith Fr. Anthony Perkins Every morning we join together and pray: Lord, save and have mercy on our civil authorities; protect our nation with peace, subduing our every foe and adversary. Fill the hearts of our leaders with peaceful, benevolent thoughts for your Holy Church and for all your people so that we, in their tranquility, may lead a peaceful and quiet life in true faith and in all godliness and purity. This same attitude is found amongst the most solemn intercessor prayers in all of Orthodoxy: those that occur during the Anaphora....
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MATTHEW 6:14-21 The Lord said, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not lay up for...
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Revelation Class 15; Heading to the Final Showdown 26 February 2025 Revelation, Chapter Twenty – Twenty-two 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). Fr. John Peck; Fr. Barnabas Powell. Rejecting RAPTUREMANIA: An Orthodox Look at a Dubious Doctrine (Function). Kindle Edition. Patrick Henry Reardon, Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018). Chapter Twenty One thousand...
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St. Matthew 25:31-46. Fr. Anthony covers the literal meaning and two spiritual meanings of the parable, noting that it should come as no surprise that diligently following the Orthodox Way prepares us to move to the right-hand, glory and thanks to God! Enjoy the show!
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(Luke 15: 11-32). Riffing off of St Nikolai Velimirovic, Fr Anthony preaches on the attributes of love - patience, forgiveness, and joy - that the father exhibits towards his sons as he pastors and encourages them them towards perfection.
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Revelation Class 14 – 19; Heading to the Final Showdown 12 February 2025 Revelation, Chapter Fifteen - Twenty Patrick Henry Reardon, Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), 79–. Chapter Fifteen John sees in heaven the tabernacle of testimony from the Book of Exodus, the traveling tent of the divine presence that Moses and the Israelites carried through the desert. This tent, however, is “heavenly,” which means that it is the original model, the very pattern that Moses copied (Ex 25:9, 40; Acts 7:44; Heb 8:5). … The tent...
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Luke 18:10-14. In this homily on the Publican and Pharisee, Fr. Anthony loses his voice and misses a couple of his points but still manages to spend over twenty minutes preaching about the need for repentance and good habits on the way to holiness. Enjoy the show!
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Revelation Class 13 – The Woman and the Beasts 05 February 2025 Revelation, Chapter Twelve - Fourteen Patrick Henry Reardon, Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), 70–78. Chapter Twelve … Nonetheless, this is not simply a description of the Lord’s nativity. The Woman in the vision is the mother of Jesus, but she is more; she is also the Church, which gives birth to Christ in the world. The sufferings and persecution of the Church are described as birth pangs (cf. Jn 16:21–22). The serpent, of course, is the ancient dragon...
info_outlineHomily on Sowing
St. John 4:5-42
The metaphor of agriculture.
1 (Introduction). You have to reap when the crop is ready. If it's ready and you don't reap it – what happens?
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Something – or someone – else will reap it (e.g. birds w/ blueberries)
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It spoils.
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It does not make it to the reaping floor where it can be transformed into its greatest and intended use/purpose
2. (The Word) The Samaritans were a crop that was ready for the harvest.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
The spiritual sowing indicates those who tilled beforehand by the voice of the prophets. The multitude of spiritual ears is those brought to the faith that is shown through Christ. But the harvest is white, in other words, already ripe for faith, and confirmed toward a godly life. But the sickle of the reaper is the glittering and sharp word of the apostle, cutting away the hearers from the worship according to the law and transferring them to the floor, that is, to the church of God. There, they are bruised and pressed by good works and shall be set forth as pure wheat worthy of the divine harvest.
It is important to realize that if Christ and the apostles did not reap the harvest, then these people – and their souls - would be lost
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Someone else will reap and gather them.
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They will spoil (internal pride and imagination)
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They will not be transformed from something transient and vulnerable into something greater (living bread?)
3. (Conclusion – the Application) The world is the field of the Lord; the Church is the place where the transformation of wheat into the Living Bread occurs.
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To speak less metaphorically,
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The world is full of people who were made for something better. They are finite and vulnerable; and in need of something real and truly good;
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But they were made to be immortal and powerful; and constantly sustained and strengthened by the unending source of everything good and true and real.
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They are ready to be transformed from children of the fallen world into the immortal sons and daughters of the perfect God.
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Their stories are all different. They are not monotheistic Samaritans as were those in today's Gospel or pagan Hellenists like those in today's epistle. When it comes to their world-view, some are atheists, some are agnostics, but they are full of the potential, the yearning, and the readiness to changed into something better.
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[It should noted that not all of them are ready for the transformation: they still need tending. And there are fields that have not been sown at all. Some sow, some tend, and some reap.]
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In today's Gospel, the Lord shows how this work is done. It is work we are called to. If we don't do it – if we as a parish and we as believers – don't give our time connecting with the Samaritans and Hellenists of our time – then they will be lost. And us? We will have failed in the One Thing the Lord commanded us to do and we will be worse than lost.
Let us now commit ourselves to the transformation of ourselves into the children of God so that we may become the evangelists of that transformation – the ones that plant, tend, and gather - and this parish into the place where the gathered souls are themselves transformed.