Each weekday morning at our house progresses remarkably the same. My bleary-eyed sons stumble their way downstairs to cuddle with me for a bit before watching a show of their choice on pbskids.org. The viewing of a television episode insures that I can have approximately twenty-three minutes to myself to shower and get ready forContinue reading “Gifts of the Spirit”
Category Archives: Claire Bischoff
Living the Easter Message
Recently, a wise woman pointed out to me that while Catholics tend to spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the season of Lent, we often celebrate Easter Sunday and then forget that we are in the midst of the longest special liturgical season of the church year. The Easter season extends fromContinue reading “Living the Easter Message”
Self-sacrifice and Motherhood
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:20B-25) These lines from this coming Sunday’s second reading jumped outContinue reading “Self-sacrifice and Motherhood”
Knowing Jesus
Where do we find Jesus in the post-resurrection time in which we live? For those of us who did not get to know Jesus during his embodiment on earth, how do we now get to know him now? This Sunday’s Gospel, the road to Emmaus story from Luke 24, gives us some important clues toContinue reading “Knowing Jesus”
Candy Crush Confessions
“Mom!” At the sound of my four-year-old’s voice, my eyes snapped open. “It’s your turn.” Turns out I had fallen asleep sitting up in the middle of our checker game, in the middle of the living room, in the middle of the day. With an internal promise to allow myself to take a nap onceContinue reading “Candy Crush Confessions”
Holy Week: Standing Things on Their Heads
Lent is a time of conversion, a time for changing ourselves and our actions as we strive to better live into our baptismal vows. Holy Week makes a fitting conclusion to this time of conversion, in that what we celebrate during Holy Week radically challenges the way we see the world, at times standing onContinue reading “Holy Week: Standing Things on Their Heads”
We Are Only Human: An Odd Comfort
There are three scenes in this Sunday’s Gospel that give me an odd sort of comfort. The first scene takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus has gone to pray. We are not told this explicitly, but I get the sense that Jesus just needed to get away from it all at thisContinue reading “We Are Only Human: An Odd Comfort”
Stations of the Cross
Over the past few weeks, I have been writing about central pillars of Catholic practice during Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This week I consider Stations of the Cross, which, while not a pillar of Lenten practice, is a popular devotional practice among many Catholics. Admittedly, growing up, I was not a big fan ofContinue reading “Stations of the Cross”
Seeing Anew in Lent
In this week’s Gospel from John 9, we hear the story of the man blind since birth who Jesus heals. Using earthy language that helps us to feel like eyewitnesses to the scene, the gospel writer tells us that Jesus “spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay onContinue reading “Seeing Anew in Lent”
Almsgiving
Last week I wrote about the idea of giving ourselves over to God in fulfillment of our baptismal promises in relation to the Lenten practice of fasting and abstinence. Along with fasting and abstinence, there are two other traditional pillars of Lenten practice for Catholics: prayer and almsgiving. This week I write about almsgiving, anContinue reading “Almsgiving”
Keeping Faith Today 