🌪️ Ep. 16: The Lent (and Apparently Easter) That Jumped Me and Took My Lunch Money

Well hey there, fellow holy hot messes…

The Lent I planned and the Lent I got were definitely not the same thing.

😅 Emotional support Snickers may or may not have entered the chat.

In this deeply personal episode, I’m reflecting on a Lent that stretched me, humbled me, exposed wounds in my own heart, and reminded me that life does not limit its suffering to Lent.

We talk about:

✨ what happens when your spiritual plans completely fall apart

Sometimes the most meaningful parts of Lent aren’t the penances we picked…

They’re the crosses we were handed.

And those things matter.

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🪵 Your Turn to Chop

A few questions to sit with this week:

💭 Where did life interrupt your plans this Lent—or even after Lent?

🙏 Spend a few quiet minutes with Him this week and ask:

“Lord, what are You trying to teach me in what I’ve been handed?”

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💛 If this episode encouraged you, share it with a fellow holy hot mess who might need it.

⭐ Leaving a review helps more people find the show and join our little corner of grace-filled chaos.

🌹 Until next time…

🪓 Keep choppin’ wood.

🧰 The Tired Catholic’s Toolbox (Part 2: Learning to Hear His Voice)

In Part 2 of The Tired Catholic’s Toolbox, we begin adding a little weight to the bar. 💪

After talking about staying connected to God in the middle of tired, busy, ordinary life in Part 1, this episode moves into the next step: formation.

Because if this is a relationship—and it is—it cannot stay one-sided.

We don’t just talk to God.

This episode is all about Scripture—why it matters, why it can feel intimidating, where to begin, and how to build a habit that actually fits into your real life.

We walk through:

We also talk about practical, accessible ways to begin—even if you feel overwhelmed—including listening instead of reading, using daily Mass readings, and choosing a Bible you’ll actually stick with.

The goal is not to conquer Scripture.

The goal is to begin. 🌿

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✨ In This Episode

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📚 Resources Mentioned

Bible translations:

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🪵 Your Turn to Chop

Pick one place to begin this week:

Start there.

Let that be enough.

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💭 Sit With This

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🔜 Coming Next

Next week, we’re going to keep building.

We’re going to start talking about what it looks like to take all of this and actually integrate it into your daily life in a deeper way—the rhythms, the habits, and the small practices that begin to shape your day from beginning to end.

We’re adding a little more weight to the bar. 🏋️‍♀️

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💛 Let’s Stay Connected

I love hearing from you—your questions are helping shape this series in the best way.

📲 Instagram: @choppinwoodpod

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend, leave a review, and make sure you’re following along so you don’t miss what’s next.

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🪓 Until next time… keep choppin’ wood.

Divine Mercy Sunday: Mercy Wins 🕊️✨

Divine Mercy Sunday is the feast that reminds us God’s mercy is always bigger than our mess.

In this episode of Choppin’ Wood, Kristen reflects on why this feast feels especially personal this year. Not only did Michael recently come home from the hospital, but this Divine Mercy Sunday also marks ten years since Kristen and Michael returned home to the Catholic Church. Their “let’s begin again” moment happened on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2016, which makes this feast feel beautifully full-circle.

This episode is for tired people, struggling people, starting-over people, and all of us Lord-have-mercy-I’m-trying people. It is a reflection on trust, restoration, and the kind of mercy that does not wait for us to have it all together before inviting us home.

Kristen also shares the conditions for receiving the plenary indulgence offered on Divine Mercy Sunday and offers encouragement to anyone who feels nervous about confession. Mercy does not shame us for coming late. It simply receives us. 🤍

In this episode:

✨ Why Divine Mercy Sunday feels so personal this year

Saint Quote:

“The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy.” — Jesus to St. Faustina 📖

Divine Mercy Sunday indulgence conditions:

🕊️ Sacramental confession

A question to carry into prayer:

What part of my story most needs mercy right now — and what would it look like to trust Jesus there? 💙

Listener Reflection:

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Easter Sunday: Easter People, Alleluia Hearts 🌅✨

He is risen — truly, He is risen.

After the palms, the perfume, the betrayal, the Upper Room, the Cross, and the long held breath of Holy Saturday, Easter arrives not as a mood shift, but as an answer. The tomb is empty. Death has been undone. Love has won.

This episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia reflects on the joy of Easter as something deeper than optimism or surface-level celebration. The Risen Christ still carries His scars, which means resurrection does not erase suffering — it transforms it. Easter tells the truth about what hurt and reveals that love is stronger still.

Easter People, Alleluia Hearts is a meditation on resurrection in ordinary life: in our kitchens, our grief, our healing, our homes, and the places we thought were too far gone. Because the same God who rolled away the stone is still rolling away what keeps hearts buried.

In this episode:

✨ Why Easter is the answer to the whole week

Opening Scripture:

“He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.” — Matthew 28:6 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

Where is God inviting me to believe that resurrection is still possible — even in the places that once felt final? 🤍

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

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Holy Saturday: Between Cross and Dawn: Waiting with Hope 🕯️

Holy Saturday feels like a held breath.

In today’s reflection, we sit with the in-between day of Holy Week — the day between Cross and Resurrection, between heartbreak and glory, between what has already happened and what has not yet been revealed.

This episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia is for anyone who knows the ache of unfinished stories, unanswered prayers, or seasons that feel sealed shut and suspended in waiting. Holy Saturday reminds us that what feels unresolved is not abandoned. Even when everything looks still on the surface, Christ is not idle. He is at work in hidden places.

The Church gives us this day not to rush past, but to inhabit with trust. To wait without forcing. To remain in the middle without mistaking silence for absence. To remember that resurrection often begins underground, long before the stone is rolled away.

In this episode:

✨ Holy Saturday as the unresolved middle

Opening Scripture:

“Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment.” — Luke 23:56 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

Where in my life am I being asked to wait without rushing, and to trust that God is still at work beneath what I cannot yet see? 🤍

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

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Good Friday: Standing at the Cross ✝️🕯️

Good Friday turns our eyes to the Cross — and to the Blessed Mother standing beneath it.

In this reflection, we look at Mary at the foot of the Cross and the profound mystery of her steadfast love. She could not stop the suffering. She could not change the outcome. And still, she stayed. Her yes to God did not end in Nazareth. It followed her all the way to Calvary.

Standing at the Cross is a meditation on Mary’s sorrow, the hidden suffering of motherhood, and the invitation to remain near Jesus in the places where love hurts and answers do not come easily. It is for anyone who has ever stood at a cross of their own — a heartbreak, a diagnosis, a broken relationship, or a grief too deep for words — and wondered what faithfulness looks like there.

Good Friday reminds us that love does not end in the dying. It is transformed through it. And even in the darkest places, Christ remains near. 🤍

In this episode:

✨ Mary at the foot of the Cross and the theology of standing

Opening quote:

“At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.” — Stabat Mater Dolorosa 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

Where is God asking me not to understand everything, but simply to stay? 💔

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

Connect with Choppin’ Wood:

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Holy Thursday: Love to the End ✨🕯️

Holy Thursday is not sentimental. It is sober, intimate, and almost unbearably tender.

In today’s reflection, we enter the Upper Room and sit with the night Jesus loved His own to the end — kneeling with a towel, feeding them with His very Body and Blood, and giving Himself completely even with betrayal already in motion.

This episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia reflects on the deep connection between the Eucharist and service: the towel and the table, adoration and poured-out love, receiving Christ and then becoming a person who kneels in love for others. It is also a meditation on being served by Jesus before we ever go out to serve, and on the quiet ache of a God who chooses to remain with us in the Eucharist. ✝️

Holy Thursday reminds us that the Upper Room was not full of saints yet. It was where saints were being made. We do not have to wait until we are holier to come close. We come close so He can make us holy. 🤍

In this episode:

✨ The Upper Room as a place of sober, intimate self-gift

Opening Scripture:

“He loved them to the end.” — John 13:1 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

Where is Jesus asking me not only to serve, but first to receive — and to stay with Him tonight? 🕯️

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

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Spy Wednesday: The Hidden Deal 🕯️

Spy Wednesday carries a sadness that sinks in slowly.

In today’s reflection, we sit with one of the more unsettling truths of Holy Week: betrayal rarely begins all at once. More often, it starts in the hidden places — in disappointment left unattended, in compromise we justify, and in the slow drift from trust into negotiation.

Judas handing Jesus over is the visible heartbreak. But Spy Wednesday also asks us to look beneath it, at the sadness underneath disappointment and the small agreements that can cool love over time.

This episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia is an invitation to honesty before the Triduum begins. To let Jesus bring into the light whatever has been hidden, compromised, or buried. Holy Week is not meant to flatter us. It is meant to free us.

In this episode:

✨ How betrayal often begins in secret before it becomes visible

Opening Scripture:

“What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” — Matthew 26:15 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

What hidden deals am I carrying — and what needs to be brought into the light before I walk into the holiest days of the year? 🤍

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

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Holy Tuesday: Loyalty in the Shadow of Betrayal ✝️

Holy Tuesday carries a different kind of heaviness.

In today’s reflection, we sit with one of the harder truths at the center of Holy Week: Jesus knows exactly who will falter, and He keeps loving anyway. He knows Judas will betray Him. He knows Peter will deny Him. He knows the others will scatter. And still, He stays.

This episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia reflects on what it means to be fully known in our weakness and still chosen in love. It’s about the fragility of sincere hearts, the difference between Peter and Judas, and the sobering truth that failure is not the end of the story — isolation is.

Holy Tuesday invites us to stop pretending strength we do not have and instead remain within reach of mercy. Because real loyalty does not begin in our confidence that we will never fail Jesus. It begins in our willingness to stay near Him when we do.

In this episode:

✨ Jesus naming betrayal and staying anyway

Opening Scripture:

“One of you will betray me.” — Matthew 26:21 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

What would it look like to stay near Jesus even in the places where I know I am still fragile? 🤍

Part of From Hosanna to Alleluia, a special Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

Connect with Choppin’ Wood:

Instagram: @choppinwoodpod

Holy Monday: Love That Pours Itself Out 🌿✨

After the palms and hosannas of Palm Sunday, Holy Monday leads us somewhere quieter — but no less intense. In today’s reflection, we step into Bethany, where Mary pours out perfume worth nearly a year’s wages on Jesus in an act of extravagant love, and into the Temple, where Jesus overturns the tables and clears away what does not belong.

One scene smells like fragrance. The other sounds like wood hitting the floor. 🌿🪵

In this Holy Monday episode of From Hosanna to Alleluia, we reflect on what it means to offer Jesus something beautiful without counting the cost — and what it means to let Him overturn whatever has crowded the place in us where deeper worship was meant to be. 💛

If Palm Sunday was the parade, Holy Monday is the heart check.

In this episode:

✨ Mary’s extravagant love in Bethany

Opening Scripture:

“She has done a beautiful thing to me.” — Mark 14:6 📖

A question to carry into prayer:

What am I pouring out for Jesus — and what am I still refusing to let Him overturn? 🤍

Part of the From Hosanna to Alleluia Holy Week series from Choppin’ Wood.

Connect with Choppin’ Wood:

Instagram: @choppinwoodpod