As some of you may already know, this blog is being re-located to The Catholic Conspiracy but will retain the name Grace Pending. Soon, all of my archived posts will also be available there; the transition will take just a little time to complete. I hope that you will bookmark the new site, and will then check back often. My mission there will remain the same as it was here at Patheos:  Grace Pending will continue to offer you personal – and I... Read more

For most of us, our days seem never to be our own. Family demands, work responsibilities, daily obligations and routines of every kind, greedily devour our every minute, constantly ransack our very strength. Silence, contemplation, and true mental rest have become foreign abstractions. Isolation and alienation seem no longer to be clandestine intruders, but rather comfortable and familiar guests. Throw in our addiction – our enslavement, really – to social media, vile political discourse, and horrid gossip, and it’s clear... Read more

I Give You A New Commandment: Love One Another. As I Have Loved You, So You Also Should Love One Another – John 13:34 We don’t love each other enough. Or is it, in reality, that we too often don’t love each other at all? So convinced are we of our own rightness in all things, that we fail, more times than not, to even notice the other. Instead of taking note of their humanity – as someone, too, created in God’s likeness and... Read more

By the time I had reached Chapter 12 (“Sins of Omission”) of Elizabeth Scalia’s latest book, Little Sins Mean A Lot, I had compiled quite an impressive mental list of all the little things (yes, “sins“) that are already killing me softly. Sure enough, I began to realize that there are days when I’m so busy engaging in office politics – read: “Gossip” (Chapter 5) – that I don’t even notice I’ve been “Half-Assing” my way through the day (Chapter 10). Or other days when I’m... Read more

Responsibility. Respectability. Maturity. Dignity. These are all good things. These are all expected things. These are all adult things. From the moment of birth, those of us of a certain age – rightfully – were taught not only to make our way in the world, but also to accept responsibility. To claim the mantle of adulthood. To, as it were, grow up quickly. As I say, these are all good things. And we are, without doubt, grateful for the lessons so taught. But . .... Read more

“Thou Hast Formed Us For Thyself, And Our Hearts Are Restless Till They Find Rest In Thee” – St. Augustine, Confessions Yet Another Endless Night. Enveloped By Silence, I Concede My Deafness. Devoured By Darkness, I Confess My Blindness. Tension, Anxiety, Fear, Loneliness. Each, In Turn, Overtakes Me, Each, In Turn, Overwhelms Me. Worldly Burdens Intrude, Interrupt, And Invade My Dreams. My Body, My Soul Are Torn Asunder, Both. Peace, Rest, And Tranquility Spin Distant And Alien. Until Even Death, That Great... Read more

We tend, often, to imagine ourselves as fragile. As not much more than a bead of air, floating aimlessly, perhaps without purpose. Submitting ourselves to whatever fresh current next sweeps us along. Expecting, inevitably, that snag, that tear, that deluge, that pop. Then, taking note of our damage, we shrink, we burrow, we hide, we surrender. But what if our real strength – hidden, not absent – can be tapped and actually harnessed? What if we could cast our eyes upwards... Read more

Nothing heavy today, just some thoughts from a few of my favorite speakers and writers. And, for something completely different, take a few minutes to watch the stand-up comedy of Jim Gaffigan as he laughs about his deep Catholic faith (embedded below). Enjoy! C.S. Lewis To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one,... Read more

We rightfully cherish our rugged individualism and our freedom, both. Especially here, in America, where we have been forced, all too many times, to take up arms to preserve, protect, and defend them. We have witnessed, and we have forcefully rejected, the brutal, soul-crushing destructiveness of the world’s most duplicitous “isms” – communism, fascism, and totalitarianism. We inherently sense that, imposed by fiat from above, any form of communitarianism tends to debase our freedoms, diminish our lives, and asphyxiate our spirits. And... Read more

There will be more than a few scholarly, and not-so-scholarly, discussions in the coming days dissecting the new Papal Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. I haven’t yet read it, but others have. Here are a few links to get you started. (I assume that I won’t necessarily agree with everything written here, but these are good places to start): Aleteia The Catholic Thing America Magazine You can also watch this video by Father Jim Martin, produced by America Magazine. UPDATE I: John Allen at... Read more