Catholic author and papal historian Patrick Novecosky joins the Catholic Morning Show to discuss Icons of Mercy, his new book on the friendship of Saint John Paul II and Saint Teresa of Calcutta. He explores how their shared devotion to human dignity and Divine Mercy united two of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century. Patrick also shares stories from meeting John Paul II five times and a remarkable Divine Mercy tradition at Mother Teresa's tomb.
Patrick Novecosky — award-winning Catholic journalist, speaker, and author of 100 Ways John Paul II Changed the World — joins Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about his new book, Icons of Mercy: Two Souls, One Mission (Catholic Answers Press), with a foreword by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. It's the first book to unpack Pope Saint John Paul II and Saint Teresa of Calcutta in the same space: two giants of the late 20th century whose friendship, as papal biographer George Weigel put it, hardly needed words.
Patrick traces how each saint came to the cause of human dignity — Mother Teresa through the dying cast into the streets of Calcutta, John Paul II through the Nazi occupation and communist oppression of Poland — and how both became messengers of mercy, from the canonization of Saint Faustina to Mother Teresa's life as "the Good Samaritan incarnate." Mother Teresa, he says, was the heart of the Church; John Paul II, its intellect.
He also shares how he met John Paul II five times beginning in 1997, and a striking story from Mother Teresa's successor, Sister Nirmala: since the day after Mother Teresa's funeral, the Missionaries of Charity have prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet at her tomb every day. Patrick's hope for readers is simple: to recognize that God has a specific plan for each of us and to say yes to it daily, just as these two saints did. He also previews his next project, on the "masculine genius" of saints like John Paul II, Carlo Acutis, Pier Giorgio Frassati, and Padre Pio.
Get Icons of Mercy at Catholic Answers or your local Catholic bookstore, or order an author-signed copy with free shipping at BooksByPatrick.com.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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