St. Anthony's Tongue

A Lenten Playlist
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Lent isn’t primarily intellectual.
It isn’t self-improvement month.
It isn’t a productivity cleanse.

Lent is descent.

In this episode of Mixtape Mysticism, I read six modern songs through the desert, the Cross, and the mercy seat, not as a playlist, but as spiritual exegesis.

Leonard Cohen.
My Chemical Romance.
Radiohead.
The Smashing Pumpkins.
Nick Cave.

Burial.
Shaking.
Dread.
Shame.
Judgment.
Entrustment.

What does Lent actually feel like?
What does the wilderness sound like?
What happens when modern anguish is read through the crucifix?

This isn’t about combining culture and Catholicism.

It’s about listening closely enough to hear where the ache points.

Songs discussed:

• “Avalanche” — Leonard Cohen

• “The Foundations of Decay” — My Chemical Romance

• “How to Disappear Completely” — Radiohead

• “To Forgive” — The Smashing Pumpkins

• “The Mercy Seat” — Nick Cave

• “Into My Arms” — Nick Cave

If this stirred something in you, subscribe and walk Lent with me.

This Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 17:1–9) gives us the Transfiguration, one of the most mysterious and beautiful moments in the life of Christ.
But this passage is not only about proving that Jesus is God. It reveals what humanity looks like when it is fully united to God.
In this episode, we explore theosis, sanctification, the imago Dei, and what it means to be transformed “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In this first episode of our Lenten series, we look at Mary Magdalene through the lens of the Song of Songs.
The Bride in the Song rises at night and searches for the one her soul loves. Mary Magdalene walks toward the tomb while it is still dark. The Church has long seen the connection. The poetry of longing becomes a body in a garden.
This episode is about the holy ache, the kind of love that remains when consolation fades. It is about fidelity in emotional drought, desire purified of substitutes, and staying when God feels hidden.
Lent is not first about discipline. It is about what kind of love remains when clarity is gone.
If you are praying and not feeling much, seeking and not finding, still showing up even when it feels quiet, you are not failing. You may be learning how to stay.

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What happens when the devil quotes Scripture?On the First Sunday of Lent, we enter the wilderness with Christ in Matthew 4:1–11. This Gospel is not only about resisting temptation. It is about identity. It is about discernment. It is about how evil often disguises itself in holy language.The Spirit leads Jesus into the desert. Not for performance. Not for self improvement. For formation. In the wilderness the enemy does something unsettling. He quotes Psalm 91.This episode of Mass Prep explores why Lent begins with the question “If you are the Son of God.” It reflects on how Scripture can be misused when severed from trust. It considers why temptation often sounds spiritual, reasonable, even biblical. And it looks at how ordered worship drives confusion away and why consolation comes after obedience.Let’s prepare our hearts for Mass.

This one is different.On the eve of Ash Wednesday, I wanted to offer something slower. More embodied. More strange.We talk about ashes every year.We post the crosses.We quote “Remember you are dust.”But what if we’ve forgotten what dirt actually means?Tonight we descend.From the dirt of Genesisto the dirt of Bethlehemto the dirt beneath Christ’s fingernailsto the dirt of the tombto the ash pressed into our foreheads.This is not a “tips for Lent” video.It’s a meditation.A letter.A theological descent into dust.If you listen carefully, you might find that dirt is not humiliation.It’s incarnation.–––If this video feels heavier or stranger than usual, that’s intentional.Let it ache.