JOYCE CORONEL

They finished praying the Rosary and then started in on the singing of hymns. We sat there in the little mission church, waiting for Mass to begin. But would it?

Ah, January. From sales on treadmills and exercise equipment to late-night commercials hawking weight-loss schemes, the country, it seems, is determined to get in shape after indulging in too many Christmas cookies.

I’ve been blessed to write for The Catholic Sun since 2002, and last year, I was asked to write for a small community newspaper. Many of my articles have had a Christian focus to them and recently, I approached the owner of the publication about establishing a special section in the paper devoted to local churches (something newspapers used to do once upon a time.)

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but giving thanks to the Lord for our many blessings should be a way of life, not just a fleeting thought on the fourth Thursday of November.

If there’s one thing this rancorous political season has revealed, it’s that America is in a battle for its soul. Who are we and what do we stand for?

There’s a change in the air and I’m not talking about those sub-112-degree temps as we head into fall.

Years ago, a wise friend offered up this little nugget: “I want my kids to experience disappointment. They might as well learn now while they’re young!”

No matter how grim the news, no matter how appalling the latest trend in the culture, we trust in His tender care to see us through every storm.

“You’ve got to wake them up!” These are the words spoken to me by priests from the Middle East, men who have held fast to faith in Jesus Christ in spite of great danger and suffering. They warn us of a murderous ideology bent on stamping out Christianity and dominating the world. “By the time America wakes up,” one priest told me, “it will be too late.”

So there I was, reporting for a hometown newspaper, sitting in the modest home of a grandmother who’d become a mentor to young moms in her neighborhood. The widow of a Baptist preacher, she wasted no time in getting down to business.