Mass Prep | God Keeps Coming Close - Matthew 21:33-43

What does God actually want from us?In this week's Mass Prep, we explore Matthew 22:34–40, where Jesus reveals the greatest commandment: to love God with our whole heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves.But there's something far more intimate here than simply being a good person or following religious rules.God is not an accountant keeping track of our spiritual achievements. He is a lover who desires our hearts.Through bridal theology, the mystics, and the mystery of divine love, we explore how loving God transforms us, teaches us to love like Him, and changes how we encounter the people around us.Because God doesn't simply want our love. He wants to teach us how to love.

💀Resources:💀Grab a Copy of The Margins Here: https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/ Buy My Book, A Catechism of the Strange, here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Join my Patreon here: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue  What if the human soul is less like a beautiful castle and more like a haunted carnival?In this Halloween episode of St. Anthony's Tongue, we journey through the Carnival of Shadows, exploring the strange illusions of the spiritual life: distorted reflections of ourselves, our desperate need for control, the endless cycles of our mistakes, the ache of loneliness, and the terrifying experience of God's apparent absence.Drawing on Scripture and the great Catholic mystics, including St. Augustine, St. Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, and St. John of the Cross, we'll discover that God doesn't always destroy the things that haunt us. Sometimes, through grace, He teaches us to see them differently.The carnival is still open. But we're not wandering through it alone.

💀Resources:💀Grab Issue VII of The Margins: A Catholic's Guide to Ghosts https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/ Buy My Book, A Catechism of the Strange, here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Join my Patreon here: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue It's Halloween! Let's bring an older episode back from they crypt. Here we discuss Catholicism, vampires and how the tales of one bleed into the other.

This Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 22:15–21) gives us the famous command to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But what if the most important part of this passage isn't about Caesar at all?Jesus asks whose image is stamped upon a coin. But we, too, bear an image: the image of God.In this week's Mystical Mass Prep, we're exploring what it means to belong to God, why our dignity goes deeper than anything the world can tell us, and how holiness transforms us into the likeness of Christ.

Tonight, you will be visited by three ghosts.Can the dead really return to the living? And what does the Catholic Church teach about ghosts?In this episode of St. Anthony's Tongue, we explore the strange Catholic theology of ghosts, drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory the Great to understand why God might permit souls from heaven, hell, and purgatory to appear.Along the way, I'll share three ghost stories from the latest issue of *The Margins: A Catholic's Guide to Ghosts*, featuring St. Thomas Aquinas, Bl. Richard of St. Ann, and Padre Pio.We'll also explore what Catholics should do if they encounter a ghost.👻 Get Issue VII of The Margins: A Catholic's Guide to Ghosts: https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/p/issue-vii-a-catholics-guide-to-ghosts

💀Resources:💀Grab a Copy of The Margins Here: https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/ Buy My Book, A Catechism of the Strange, here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Join my Patreon here: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue  Episode on Relics:https://youtu.be/CLdhj6b-AtMEpisode on Theosis: https://youtu.be/TRbknjxcA5U What happens when a saint's body refuses to decay?In this special October episode of St. Anthony's Tongue, we're returning to some old-school strange Catholic storytelling to explore the eerie mystery of incorruptible saints.From the mysterious lights surrounding St. Charbel's tomb to the strange apparition of St. Andrew Bobola and the remarkably preserved body of St. Bernadette, we'll explore these extraordinary stories, separate fact from myth, and discover what incorruptibility reveals about theosis, the holiness of the human body, and the promise of resurrection.Inspired by my new book, A Catechism of the Strange.

In this week's Mass Prep, we reflect on Matthew 22:1–14, where Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast.Why a wedding? Because God desires more than our obedience. He desires union with us.We'll explore the bridal mystery of Christianity, the danger of becoming too busy for God, the meaning of the wedding garment, and how the Eucharist offers us a foretaste of the heavenly wedding feast.

🐺 FROM THE CRYPT: I'm resurrecting a few of my favorite spooky episodes this October. Starting with werewolves.Werewolves have haunted folklore for centuries, but they also have a surprisingly strange history within Christianity. So what happens when Catholicism, saints, theology, and the legend of the werewolf collide?Welcome back to A Catholic's Guide to Werewolves.And stay tuned, here's plenty of brand-new strange and spooky Catholicism coming this October.Resources:Grab a Copy of Issue 6 - Strange Catholicism here: https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/p/issue-vi-strange-catholicism Buy My Book, A Catechism of the Strange, here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Join my Patreon here: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue  

In Matthew 21, the tenants reject servant after servant—and somehow, the owner keeps sending more.In this Mass Prep, we look at the strange persistence of God, the Bridegroom who keeps coming closer, and what it means that divine love ultimately takes on flesh.

Grab a Copy of Issue 6 - Strange Catholicism here: https://www.stanthonystongue.com/margins/p/issue-vi-strange-catholicism Buy My Book, A Catechism of the Strange, here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Join my Patreon here: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue  Episode on the Mysticism of the Stigmata:https://youtu.be/Apc3Ifl1n5o Irving Houle was a husband, father, grandfather—and a reported stigmatist who experienced the wounds and Passion of Christ nightly for nearly sixteen years.In this episode, we explore Irving’s strange story, the mysticism behind the stigmata, his reported healing ministry, and what these wounds might reveal about becoming more like Christ.Featured in The Margins: Strange Catholicism and explored alongside the strange phenomena of the saints in A Catechism of the Strange.