OrthoAnalytika

This is a recording of Fr. Anthony Perkins' YouTube Livestream from 7/20/2020.  In it, he makes the point that virtue is ontological and its unreliability in politics necessitates limited government.  Enjoy the show!

Homily on Romans 12:6-14.  It is not enough to gave gifts, or even to want to use them well.  Much harm is done by people who have the zeal and skills, but lack the ability to abhor evil, cling to the good, and love without hypocrisy.  Commitment to Orthodoxy can help, but isn't enough; adding self-control and humility and really trusting God can allow us to meet the requirements of the moment.  Enjoy the show!

This is a recording of Fr. Anthony Perkins' YouTube Livestream from 7/13/2020.  In it, he talks about how stupidity is overdetermined (and not just demonic or agenda-driven), a couple of the things that make intersectionality such a perverse and counter-productive religion, and how Orthodox Christians are both culpable for it and responsible for replacing it with Authenticity.

Homily: The Demoniac at Gardenes Introduction – the context of the story Our Lord had just come across the water with his disciples.  They had faced one kind of fear when they were on the water: a fear of the chaos of a storm.  A great wind had come up while Jesus slept, and the disciples panicked.  They woke Jesus up and he calmed the wind and rebuked them for their lack of faith.  When they got to the other side, they faced a new kind of fear: the fear of ghosts.  The demons in this man at Gardenese had driven him into the graveyard to play on men’s superstitions about ghosts.  In different parts of the Gospels, the disciples had shown themselves to be subject to this superstition.  But the Lord identified the demoniac for what he was: not a ghost haunting the cemetery, but a man possessed by a legion of demons. There are three main points I would have us learn here.  The first has to do with fear.  Fear is a strong instinct, and it is one that the powers of the air and marketers of this world like to use to manipulate us.  Fear is a strong instinct, but for we who have given our lives to Christ and to His peace and to His power, it is not a rational one.  Do we fear for our bodies?  Why, when Our Lord Himself said that we should be more concerned with the state of our souls?  When He has given us proof of the resurrection of His sons and daughters into new bodies in the world to come?  Do we fear for the health of others?  Why?  Do we believe that we love them more than God does?  There are dangers in this world and we need to be aware of them; but fear does not help us see and react to these dangers more effectively.  Quite the opposite.  The only laudable fear that Scripture speaks of is the fear of God – and this is the fear that brings His peace and power to bear in the most difficult of times.  We should not fear the storms.  God can bring calm to us even when they blow around us.  We should not fear the ghosts.  They are the illusions of the world created to scare and control us.  We should not even fear the demons.  They have no hold over the righteous and God has granted His Church His power over them.  We should only fear the Lord and trust in His power and love.    The second has to do with how this man got there in the first place. [How did that man end up running through the graveyard naked?]  Temptations.  Fascination.  Obsession.  Possession.  Both good and bad thoughts can lead us down this sorrowful road.  Example of a bad thought: remembrance of wrongs.   Example of a good thought: the protection of children.  Even the latter can become perverted so that the parent becomes a curse to himself, to his children, and to everyone around him (other examples: health, work, church/religion).  In these times, it is important to realize that even thoughts that begin from a good place – a desire for another’s safety or a desire for justice – can lead us down this road if we lose perspective and grounding.  The media is designed to feed this obsession.  The real danger for us as Christians is that we are trained by our faith to care for the good and to hate all that is evil; without discernment and peace, our feelings can open us to the kind of manipulation that can lead to the kind of madness that will have us all running crazy through the graveyards. The third and concluding point is to remind you that this is place where miracles happen.  This is where God works to bring peace to our souls, to our families, to our community, and to our world.  This is where God roots out the demons and obsessions that have all but ruined our lives.  This is where God brings joy to those who have oppressed by the wickedness of a fallen world.  We have all seen it happen.  We are here because we know this to be a place of peace and power. Conclusion:  Give your life to Christ God will not force His miracles on us.  Remember in the story that the demoniacs were not the only ones possessed: there was a whole town nearby that loved their swine and the money those pigs made them so much that they could neither rejoice in the healing of their brothers nor embrace the one God who brought him healing; much less see the demons in their own hearts and seek his mercy themselves.  Instead, they ran Christ out of town.  We all need healing.  We are all obsessed.  We need to let go of [and renounce] “the devil and all his works, and all his worship, and all his angels, and all his pomp.”  We must unite ourselves completely to Christ; as St. Paul put it this morning, we need to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead.  This is the way out of fear, this is the way out of madness, this is the only Way to perfect peace and joy.  

This is a recording of Fr. Anthony Perkins' YouTube Livestream from 7/6/2020.  After talking about the (Liturgical) Summer Solstice, he talks about identity politics and the greatest patriotic sf movie ever.  Enjoy the show!

This is a recording of Fr. Anthony Perkins' Livestream from his back porch in Hartwell, Georgia on 30 June 2020.  He talks about how the modern troubles play on the lowest part of our minds and why "Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future" is incomplete and misleading.

Homily for the third Sunday after Pentecost (Romans 5:1-10; Matthew 6:22-33).  Do we have anxiety or peace?  Are our tribulations bringing us anger and despondency or hope?  In this homily, Fr. Anthony makes the case that we are suffering from the chaos around us because we skipped a step: we went straight to virtue without first seeking God and His righteousness.  This was Fr. Anthony's audible homily; it's not polished, but there you go.  Enjoy the show!

This talk was recorded and streamed at 10AM EST on 22 June 2020 on Fr. Anthony Perkins' Youtube Channel.  In it, Fr. Anthony talks about what St. Paul’s letter to the Romans teaches us about the utility of feelings and science for discerning and healing the world’s pain.  Enjoy the show!

Fr. Anthony preaches on the epistle reading (Romans 2:10-16), explaining St. Paul's take on the utility of The Law (for the Jews) vs. the Conscience (for the Gentiles) and what it means for us now.  Enjoy the show!

Homily for All Saints 2020Continuing on the theme of Division Call to unity.  But we experience division.  The devil loves to divide us [and to solve that division with hedonism and tyranny].  [Review the three parts of the mind] Rather than taking the unity of God into our minds (through the heart), and spreading it through our families, friendships, communities and the world; we do the opposite: we take the divisions and tyrannies of the devil in the world, bring them into our minds (through our emotions; justified by our brains), and spread them through our families and friendships and communities and the world [giving it back with usury]. We have entire industries devoted to sowing this division through our emotions, under the guise of entertainment and news.  Everything is turned upside down (in the theater). Who is it that plots against our marriages? Is it not the theater?  Don’t you see how this makes it impossible for women to love their husbands?  Don’t you see how this leads husbands to disdain their wives?  Don’t you see how this encourages insatiability, adultery, and divorce?  This is how it is not just with the theater itself; the theater-goers themselves are subversive of our families and community; they bring a grievous tyranny among themselves and into our midst.  St. John Chrysostom, “Homily 37”. [Restate that in terms of race.  It also works for politics, sex, etc.] The media make money by playing up our divisions [and then offering hedonism and tyranny as a solution].  They know how to use the emotions that the images and stories they craft generate to manipulate us to watch more news.  That’s their model for making money.  They devil rejoices in this because it takes people who have SO MUCH in common to distrust and even hate one another.  This is true of the entire news and media system.  We can’t think that we have opted out because we have found an unbiased source or balanced one set against another.  They are still manipulating us and dividing us for market share. So what is the solution? God gave us our psychology for our salvation.  The evil one uses it to manipulate and divide us; the Church works with our psychology to save and unite us. First. Cut way back on our screen time, to include news and social media.  Don’t let them feed the emotions. Second.  Pray.  Read pious and useful literature.  Watch pious and useful entertainment. Third.  Love.  Don’t judge.  Be charitable. It is easier for Christians who actually pray the prayers of the Church in their daily prayer rules, surrounds themselves with icons, and avoid the excesses of the media to live well because they know from the depths of their heart that they live in a beautiful world among the saints.  Such people have has set themselves up for success. One final thought [drawing on the parallel between marriage and the Church]: What would you think of a married man who spent more time hanging out at the bar with his bachelor and adulterous friends than with his wife? What would you think of a wife who spent more time complaining about men with her friends than nurturing her marriage? How long would you expect their marriages to last?  And if they lasted, how happy would you expect that marriages to be? [Restate this with regard to our nation and community.] We have to be intentional about our relationships with one another in order to find peace and joy within them.  It is the same for our relationship with Christ.  We cannot live healthy Christian lives without nurturing our relationship with Him.  He is Incarnate in His Church.  That means that we must devote ourselves to the life of Christ here in this God-protected parish.