AfterMass

Ana Munley

AfterMass is the podcast for Catholics who want more than just Sunday. If you’re tired of checking the “Catholic” box without seeing real transformation in your life, this is for you.

Hosted by Ana Munley, Catholic wife and mom. Send an email and share your thoughts to: theaftermasspodcast@gmail.com

New episodes drop every Tuesday on Spotify, YouTube, Apple + Amazon Podcasts.
Find Ana on TikTok and Instagram: @anamunley
and our Podcast socials: @aftermasspodcast

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29 episodes
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Avg 13 min
English

Episodes 29

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Wednesday · 11 min
LIFE/CHANNEL UPDATE.
AFTERMASS: https://aftermass.org FREE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://aftermass.org/#newsletter 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. 🤍
August 21 · 15 min
The Ancient Israelite Law That Explains Mary's Crown
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.
August 20 · 19 min
Padre Pio Reveals the Sin Almost Nobody Confesses
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.
August 19 · 17 min
Scientists Measured What The Rosary Does To Your Heart and Brain
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.
August 18 · 10 min
Fr. Mike Schmitz Explains What You Need To Know About Purgatory
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
August 17 · 14 min
This Simple Practice Has Transformed My Suffering
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
August 13 · 10 min
The 40 Days St. Francis and Padre Pio Both Took Seriously
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
August 12 · 19 min
Scrupulosity Explained: Is It a Sin or Is It OCD?
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
August 11 · 16 min
Things Your Guardian Angel Can and Can’t Do
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.
August 10 · 19 min
The 4 Catholic Temperaments Explained: Your Strengths, Vices & Virtues
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
August 8 · 8 min
What Will Heaven Actually Be Like? Fr. Ripperger Explains
Fr. Chad Ripperger recently sat down with Shawn Ryan and shared some fascinating Catholic theology about what awaits us after death. Will we interact with relatives who have died? Will we really see our entire family lineage? Did Jesus have a guardian angel? And what does God’s mercy actually look like from the perspective of eternity?In this video, I’m breaking down some of the most interesting parts of their conversation, including what Fr. Ripperger says about our ancestors, the intercession of those who have gone before us, St. Thomas Aquinas on guardian angels, and St. Augustine on why God’s mercy endures forever.
August 5 · 9 min
Fr. Chad Ripperger Explains How Guardian Angels Speak to You
Have you ever wondered how your guardian angel communicates with you? In this video, we break down Fr. Chad Ripperger's explanation of how guardian angels interact with us, how to speak to your guardian angel, and how to recognize the difference between angelic promptings and spiritual deception. This may completely change the way you pray.
August 4 · 8 min
You Fast Twice a Year. That's Why You're Stuck.
Most Catholics fast twice a year and wonder why the same sin is still sitting there untouched. Fasting isn't a diet or a once-a-year obligation, it's a weapon most of us have never picked up. In this video: the actual mechanics of why fasting works, how to start (even if you've never fasted before), and why Christ paired it with prayer for a reason. 🕊️ New videos every week - subscribe for more on saints, apologetics, and living your faith beyond Sunday Mass.
July 30 · 10 min
What Happened Before Genesis Even Started
Before Adam. Before Eve. Before the world even existed - there was a war. This video walks through the real story of Lucifer's fall, the first battle in Revelation, and how that one moment set up everything that happens in the garden, on the cross, and in your life right now. If you only know the Adam and Eve story, you're missing the chapter that comes before it. 🔔 Subscribe for more on saints, apologetics, and lived Catholic faith
July 29 · 12 min
What Happens to Your Soul in the First Hour After You Die
What actually happens to your soul in the first hour after death? Not the funeral or the grieving, the soul itself. In this video I walk through what the Church actually teaches: the particular judgment that happens immediately at death, why purgatory isn't a punishment but a purification, what the saints and mystics have said about that first encounter with Christ, and the role your guardian angel plays at the moment of death. I also cover why prayer for the dead matters and why the daily examination of conscience is one of the best ways to prepare for what's coming. There's no waiting room, no soul sleep. Total clarity arrives the instant you die, and that changes how you should be living right now. #Catholic #Death #Purgatory
July 28 · 13 min
Fr. Chad Ripperger: What Really Happens in the First 5 Minutes of an Exorcism
Fr. Chad Ripperger, one of the most experienced exorcists working today, has talked openly about what actually happens in the first minutes of an exorcism, and it's nothing like the movies. No screaming, no spectacle. In this video I break down the quiet, disciplined process behind it: the months or years of Church discernment that happen before anyone ever enters the room, the three specific signs the Church actually looks for, why the priest's own spiritual preparation matters as much as his authority, and the real difference between a formal exorcism and the more common deliverance prayer. This isn't Hollywood. It's the actual, ordinary authority of the Church, and it's more relevant to your own spiritual life than you'd think. #Catholic #Exorcism #SpiritualWarfare
July 27 · 13 min
Every Part of the Catholic Mass, Explained (Finally)
Most Catholics have sat through the Mass hundreds of times and couldn't tell you why any single part happens when it happens. It's not a personal failure.. it's just that nobody ever handed us the blueprint. In this video I walk through the entire structure of the Mass, piece by piece: the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the Concluding Rite - and what's actually happening (and being asked of you) at every stage. I also break down why daily Mass matters just as much as Sunday, even though it looks stripped down. If you've ever gone through the motions without knowing what they mean, this is for you. #Catholic #Mass #Catholicism
July 24 · 11 min
"You Will Know Them By Their Fruits." Here's What That Actually Means.
How do you know which Catholic voices online you should actually trust? Jesus already gave us the answer. In this video, we unpack what "you will know them by their fruits" really means, what the fruits of the Holy Spirit actually are, and why this teaching is one of the most practical tools for discernment in the digital age.
July 23 · 11 min
What Padre Pio Said Every Catholic Should Read Before Bed
The last thing you put into your mind before sleep matters more than most people realize. Padre Pio believed those final moments before bed shape your spiritual life in profound ways. Here's what he recommended, why he recommended it, and how a simple nighttime habit can change the way you end every day.
July 22 · 12 min
What Actually Happens the Moment You Confess?
What really happens the moment a priest says the words of absolution? This isn't just about feeling better after confession. The Church teaches that something objective and supernatural takes place, whether you feel it or not. Let's walk through what actually changes in your soul, why penance matters, and what many saints said happens the moment you are forgiven.

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