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Taking September off from YouTube + the podcast 🤍

I’m giving myself the month of September to spend some real time working on AfterMass and a few other projects that have been sitting in my brain for a very long time.

One of the biggest things I’m working on is aftermass.org. My hope is to build it into a real Catholic hub for everything that happens after Mass ends. Resources to help you understand the faith, live the liturgical year, pray, learn, wrestle with the questions you’ve been afraid to ask and actually bring Catholicism into your everyday life.

I’ve also started the AfterMass Monthly, a free newsletter that comes out at the beginning of each month with the month’s important liturgical dates, a Gospel reflection, saint of the month, a Catholic question answered, an examination of conscience, what’s coming next and more. September’s issue is out now, so make sure you sign up above to get it. 🤍

And then there are a few other things happening behind the scenes...

I’m writing a lot. I’ve heard the “Ana, when are you going to write a book?” comments for a long time lol. That’s all I’m saying about that for now. 👀

I have ideas and projects that I keep saying I’ll get to “when I have time” and I finally realized I have to actually make the time.

So September is my month to build, write, create, pray about where all of this is going and get some things ready that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I’ll still be around on Instagram and there will be plenty happening over at AfterMass.

YouTube + the podcast will be back in October. 🤍

Tomorrow, August 22, the Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary, eight days after the Assumption. Most Catholics have said "Hail, Holy Queen" hundreds of times without knowing where that title actually comes from or what it means in practice.

The answer isn't in medieval royal courts. It's in the ancient Israelite office of the gebirah, the king's mother, the one figure with the standing to bring a request to the throne and be heard. This video traces that office from Solomon and Bathsheba in 1 Kings, through Pope Pius XII's 1954 encyclical establishing the feast, to what it actually means to ask for Mary's intercession today.

If you've ever wondered whether praying to Mary is a workaround instead of going straight to God, this explains why the answer is no, and gives you a clearer way to pray the Hail Holy Queen this week.

Padre Pio spent decades hearing confessions, and the sin he came back to most wasn't the one people expected. It was gossip, and more specifically what the Church calls detraction and calumny, revealing or fabricating things about someone who isn't in the room. This video breaks down the difference between rash judgment, detraction and calumny, why truth isn't a defense against it, and a simple test you can run before you speak about someone who isn't there. It also covers where the line is when you're talking about real harm someone did to you, since that's a different category entirely.

Examine your conscience this week for the conversations you'd never repeat if the person walked in and heard you.

A team of Italian cardiologists put people on heart monitors and had them pray the rosary in Latin. What they measured surprised even the researchers: praying it at a normal pace slowed people's breathing to almost exactly six breaths a minute, a rate where the heart and blood pressure systems fall into sync. Separately, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Newberg used brain scans to study what happens during repetitive, verbal prayer like this and found something worth knowing if you've ever finished a rosary feeling like your mind never showed up.

This video walks through both studies and what they actually mean, without turning the rosary into a breathing exercise or claiming science can measure grace. It can't.. but it can tell you that a distracted, dry rosary is doing something real in your body whether you feel it or not.

Sources: Bernardi et al., BMJ (2001); Andrew Newberg's SPECT imaging research on contemplative prayer.

Purgatory gets treated two ways: either as an overcomplicated invention or as something Scripture never actually supports. Both are wrong. Drawing on a video Fr. Mike Schmitz made years ago on Ascension Presents, I break down what purgatory actually is: three simple claims, real scriptural backing (1 Corinthians 3, 2 Maccabees 12) and why it's less about punishment and more about mercy finishing what it started. If you've ever wondered what happens to someone you love after they die.. or wondered what to actually do about it.. this one's for you.

🔗 Fr. Mike Schmitz's original video: https://youtu.be/GnwDDsN6ZfM?si=-219ylpnNcGfekFk

#Purgatory #CatholicFaith #FrMikeSchmitz

What if the inconveniences, exhaustion, and suffering you experience every day could actually become prayer?

I first heard this practice from Catholic author and speaker Megan Hjelmstad at the Defending the Faith Conference at Franciscan University. Megan is the author of Offer It Up: Discovering the Power and Purpose of Redemptive Suffering, and her approach completely changed the way I think about the ordinary hard moments of my week.

In this video, I’m sharing the simple weekly practice I’ve started using to intentionally offer those moments for the people in my life.

Learn more about Megan and her work:
https://meganhjelmstad.com/

#Catholic #RedemptiveSuffering #CatholicPrayer #CatholicFaith

St. Francis fasted 40 days every year and it left wounds that never healed. Padre Pio kept the same devotion for the same reason.

It's called St. Michael's Lent. It starts this Saturday, August 15th and almost no Catholic outside Franciscan circles has heard of it.

In this episode I cover the apparitions at Monte Gargano that started it all. The pope who added a prayer to every Mass after a vision that shook him. And why both saints saw St. Michael as a direct ally in spiritual battle.

What you'll learn:

The real story behind St. Francis's stigmata

Why Padre Pio kept the same devotion to St. Michael

The origin of the St. Michael Prayer

How to observe St. Michael's Lent starting August 15th

#CatholicTikTok #SaintMichael #StFrancis #PadrePio #CatholicFaith #SpiritualWarfare #AfterMass

Saint Ignatius of Loyola once considered walking off a cliff because he couldn't stop confessing sins he wasn't even sure he'd committed. That's scrupulosity and it's more common than most Catholics realize.In this video: what scrupulosity actually is, how it's different from a normal working conscience, where religious OCD fits into the picture, what saints like Ignatius and Alphonsus Liguori actually did about it, and what real, practical help looks like.. spiritually and clinically.If any part of this sounds like your own experience, please don't sit with it alone. Talk to a confessor who understands scrupulosity specifically, and consider talking to a therapist too. Getting help isn sometimes the most direct way back to get back to your spiritual.#Catholic #Scrupulosity #ReligiousOCD #CatholicGuilt #Confession #CatholicMentalHealth

Can your guardian angel read your mind? See your dreams? Know your future? Can you name your guardian angel, and what happens to your angel when you die?

Catholic teaching on guardian angels is a lot more specific than most people realize. In this video, we're going through 13 questions about guardian angels, from what St. Thomas Aquinas taught about their knowledge and abilities to what Scripture and Catholic tradition tell us about their role in our lives.

We’ll also talk about whether animals have guardian angels, whether twins share one, whether your angel can physically protect you, what St. Gemma Galgani and Padre Pio said about their guardian angels, and why the Church discourages Catholics from naming them.

Guardian angels aren't just a nice Catholic idea. Their entire mission is ordered toward helping us get to heaven, and understanding what they actually can and can't do makes that reality even more fascinating.

Are you sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic?The four temperaments have been used by Catholic spiritual writers for centuries as a way of understanding our natural strengths, weaknesses, and patterns in the spiritual life.

In this episode, we break down all four temperaments, where the framework came from and what each one can reveal about the particular virtues and vices you may need to pay attention to.We’ll cover the sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic temperaments, including their strengths, common spiritual struggles, dominant vices, corresponding virtues and how your temperament can affect prayer, relationships, discipline, leadership and your examination of conscience.

The four temperaments are not Catholic doctrine and they don't determine who you are or how holy you can become. Think of them as a tool for understanding the raw material you're working with and where your particular spiritual battles may be.

Which temperament do you think you are?

#Catholic #Catholicism #FourTemperaments #CatholicFaith #SpiritualLife #Sanguine #Choleric #Melancholic #Phlegmatic