OrthoAnalytika
Colossians 3:12-17; St. Luke 17:12-19. Fr. Anthony challenges us not to let anything - to include politics - keep us from seeing and loving the people around us. He also warned of the hellfire we earn if we only learn to love and feed our egos. Enjoy the show!
info_outline Introduction to Chanting - Class 4OrthoAnalytika
info_outline FSAW - The Problem is I'm ShallowOrthoAnalytika
Fr. Anthony talks with Fr. Gregory Jensen about his most recent "" substack article, "." The idea is that our lives are superficial and unlikely to lead to the kind of healing and growth that we are called towards. They also discuss a great irony: those who seem most motivated to move towards depth (the rigorists and gerundists) do it in a way that only increases the problem because they get distracted by the forms rather than inward discernment and change. The answer to superficiality is 1) to become part of the Orthodox Church and 2) to immerse oneself in the (seemingly...
info_outline Interview with Flavius Mihaies on Ukraine's Two WarsOrthoAnalytika
Flavius is an independent researcher and journalist who travels the world collecting and sharing the stories of how people and their faith are affected by war and hardship. I think you will enjoy our conversation about his previous work, how he came to it, and the hardships too many Ukrainians are facing as a result of the combination of Russia's unjust and fratricidal war and local corruption. Flavius's witness and voice are important and compelling. You can read his article, " . Enjoy the show!
info_outline Homily - Don't Sow BramblesOrthoAnalytika
2 Corinthians 9:6-11. If we are not careful, the seeds we sow will grow briars. Sow well, in Christ!
info_outline Introduction to Chanting - Class 3OrthoAnalytika
Ten Commandments of Chanting Bring and maintain peace in the kliros. It’s a witness of cooperation, harmony, and reverence – nothing else belongs there (any more than it does in the altar or nave). Come early and be prepared. This is especially true if you are reading an epistle. Prayer is part of the preparation. Spend time with the priest before the service to compare notes/get on the same page (and get a blessing). Our ears are more important than our voices. Make the hand-offs sound like you are part of the same team, not separate or...
info_outline Lecture - On Beauty; Lessons from the GulagOrthoAnalytika
The Good News I According to St. John: In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. (1:1-2) Genesis 1: 26a, 27-28a Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and...
info_outline Bible Study - Revelation Session FiveOrthoAnalytika
Revelation, Session Five Christ the Savior, Anderson SC Fr. Anthony Perkins Sources: The translation of the Apocalypse is from the Orthodox Study Bible. 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), Bishop Averky, The Epistles and the Apocalypse (Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Volume III. (Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2018). Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, ed. David G. Hunter, trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, vol. 123,...
info_outline Homily - Orthodox Familial EcclesiologyOrthoAnalytika
St. Luke 8:5-15. In today's homily, Fr. Anthony speaks about how a marriage should function in an Orthodox context and how that translates to our life in the Church. Enjoy the show! +++ Here's the homily I planned on giving before I called an audible. Homily Notes: Tending the Garden of our Souls St. Luke 8:5-15: The Gospel of the Sower “Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride? Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride? Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all...
info_outline Lecture - Discernment & The Abolition of ManOrthoAnalytika
Fr. Anthony speaks about discernment, the perils of pride in the priesthood, and CS Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.
info_outlineEphesians 5: 8 – 19
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “ Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
An Exposition on Today’s Epistle Lesson
We have chosen the light over the darkness – therefore we have to walk as children of the light; as St. Paul puts it, “finding out what is acceptable to the Lord”
What is acceptable to the Lord? God does not hide this from us; nor do we have to search for it. He reminds us every single day… through the rituals He has prescribed for us through the Church.
The Psalm we recite in our morning prayers says that it is not burnt offerings, but rather a “broken and contrite heart” that God does not despise. Surely this is primal. I say this not only because of the prominent place this Psalm has in our morning prayer, but the way this theme is reinforced by all the penitential prayers that accompany it.
Continual repentance is acceptable to the Lord – to use the imagery of today’s epistle, we must “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them”: repentance requires opening up all the hidden closets – all the secret dark places – to the Light of Christ. And as this Light exposes the things that lurk in these places, we pull them out and offer them to the Lord in confession by name.
As we do this, as we find, expose, and sacrifice all the dark secrets, sins, habits, and histories that have blighted our souls; we walk more surely as “children of the light”, enjoying the blessings and joy that God has promised to those who follow Him.
God reminds us of this every day not just to tell us how important it is, but also because He knows how hard it is for us. Yes, it is hard for us to change bad habits and patterns of thought, but often it is hard for us to even recognize that we have a problem. The Light of Christ is pure and illuminates all of our sins, but our vision is still clouded. God is working with our faith to heal our vision, as in today’s Gospel, but in the meantime there are things in our lives that we just don’t see – or perhaps see but do not think are important.
This brings us to a difficult but vital part of today’s reading: we don’t just expose the darkness in our own lives, but the darkness in the lives of those with whom we share love and trust and are thus able to hear us. As St. John Chrysostom puts it;
You call God, “Father”, and those whom you love “brother;” but then when you see your beloved committing unnumbered wickednesses, you care more about his feelings and what he thinks about you than what is good for him? I beg you, don’t think this way. The stronger the bond, the more we are obliged to speak about sin.
Are those you love at enmity with one another? Reconcile them. Did you see them being jealous or coveting? Call them on it. Did you see them wronged? Stand up in their defense. This is why the bonds of love and friendship exist: so that we may be of use one to another. A man will listen in a different spirit to a friend than to someone he doesn’t know. He may regard a stranger or someone he isn’t close to with suspicion; he may not even trust a teacher; but a friend? A friend he may trust..
Today’s reading stops just short of making this even clearer when St. Paul writes; “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” The relationship of mutual submission provides the mechanism of discernment and accountability. The people who love us can help us see things that we need to work on and will share this information in a way that we can hear; without manipulation or aggression. After the line on mutual submission, St. Paul provides marriage as the ideal setting for such a relationship and then points to marriage as a type, with the Church as its prototype.
We need each other, but only to the extent we are willing to love and be loved. Within such a relationship, figuring out what is acceptable to God is a natural part of the relationship.
In conclusion, God made the world good and made us to thrive in it. This can only happen if we dedicate ourselves to this cause – and do so with purpose and resolve. Practically, this means avoiding taking pleasure in those things that God despises: deceit, hatred, darkness, etc. and reveling in those things that He has given us for our enjoyment and edification (community, light, joy, selfless service, charity, pursuit of truth, dedication to honest craft and creation).
And listen to these words St. Paul finishes with today as he describes what the conversations look like between people who are in love with the light and despise the darkness; we speak “to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”
Let all of our thoughts, all of our conversations, and all of our actions become hymns expressing our joy of being in and growing in the Love of Our Lord together.