Matthew 14 gives us two banquets, and two very different kinds of kings.Herod feasts inside a palace, surrounded by wealth, spectacle, and powerful guests. By the end of the night, John the Baptist’s head is carried into the room on a platter.Then Jesus gathers the hungry in the wilderness.No palace. No guest list. No VIP section. Just grass, hunger, compassion, and bread placed into the hands of God.In this Mass Prep, we explore what these two feasts reveal about power, Catholic leadership, luxury spiritual experiences, and the uncomfortable question of whether we sometimes look more like Herod at the banquet than Christ among the hungry.Every kingdom eventually sets a table.The question is what it eats.

Pre-order A Catechism of the Strange here: https://www.amazon.com/Catechism-Strange-Stigmata-Relics-Miracles/dp/0829460683 Catholicism is full of wounds, bones, dreams, incorrupt bodies, visions, relics, and saints who seemed to glow with the presence of God.But these strange things are not merely spooky trivia. They reveal something essential about the Christian life: grace does not simply forgive us from a distance. It enters us, transforms us, and conforms us to Christ.In this episode, I talk about why I wrote A Catechism of the Strange, how wonder helped lead me back to the faith, and what the strangest corners of Catholic tradition reveal about what every human person was created to become.

We live in a world that constantly tells us we need one more thing. One more book. One more devotion. One more answer. So on and so on. But in Sunday's Gospel, Jesus tells a different story. The merchant finds one pearl—and stops searching.In this week's mass prep, let's talk about what it means to stop shopping for God, why the Kingdom can't be mass-produced, and how Christ is the treasure that changes everything.

This episode connects with Issue IV of The Margins, God in the Gutters, available now.Dorothy Day was a journalist, anarchist, Catholic convert, founder of the Catholic Worker—and perhaps the only saint to ever land on an FBI watchlist.In this episode, we look at Dorothy through the lens of mysticism: a transformative awareness of God’s presence that increases our love of God and neighbor. For Dorothy, that awareness became prayer, hospitality, protest, breadlines, and a life spent finding Christ among the poor.

Buy a Zine: www.stanthonystongue.com/margins What does the Church mean when it calls itself the Mystical Body of Christ?In this episode of Mysticism Word by Word, we explore how Christ joins us to Himself—and to one another—so deeply that His life begins to move between us. The Mystical Body is not merely a metaphor. It means grace transforms us, love binds us together, and Christ remains present in the wounded members of His Body.

Keeping this brief this week as I am recording the audio version of my book! But let's talk Matthew 13!Last week, Jesus spoke about the seed. This week, He shows us what happens when it begins growing in a messy field.The weeds do not mean the wheat has failed. The field is unfinished—but God is still at work.Buy a Zine: www.stanthonystongue.com/margins

Buy a Zine: http://www.stanthonystongue.com/marginsJoin the Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/anthonystongue What does Matthew 25 reveal about mercy, judgment, and the way we see people on the margins?In this episode, we talk about the saints we have sanitized, the difficult human beings they chose to love, and the Christ who identifies himself with the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the wounded, and the forgotten. Because mercy is not optional decoration for the Christian life—and grace should change which people we are capable of seeing.This episode also explores the themes behind Issue IV of The Margins: God in the Gutters, featuring Dorothy Day, Francis of Assisi, Josephine Bakhita, Damien of Molokai, Benedict Joseph Labre, John of God, and more.

Mass Prep for Matthew 13:1–23, the Parable of the Sower.God is not waiting for the perfect soul before He speaks. He throws the Word into distracted hearts, wounded hearts, hard hearts, and overgrown hearts.The soul is not a machine. It is dirt. And grace is a seed with dirt under its fingernails.

The devil hates soup.Not because soup is magic, but because mercy makes the love of Christ tangible.In this video, I talk about the works of mercy as mysticism, spiritual warfare, and a way of making our faith become flesh.This idea comes from Issue IV of The Margins: God in the Gutters.Learn more / subscribe: www.stanthonystongue.com/margins

What’s the difference between meditation and contemplation—and why do Catholics so often confuse them?In this episode of Mysticism, Word by Word, we unpack what the Church means by both, how meditation can open into contemplation, and why dry prayer is still fruitful.