CSR 83 Patrick Novecosky

He played baseball in elementary school, soccer in high school, and now in his adult life is an avid marathoner, including having participated in events from southern California to New York City to Naples, Florida, and even Rome, Italy. Meanwhile, he wrote a book called, 100 Ways John Paul II Changed the World, and has won more than two dozen awards from the Catholic Press Association. He met Pope St. John Paul II five times!  He also talks here about having gone five times to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Guest quotes:

“My dad had had two goals in life.  One was to be married for 50 years, which he accomplished, and have a large family and raise them in the faith, which he did… His pride and joy was knowing that he raised his family … to know Jesus and to love their Catholic faith.”

“The faith… was the base that I grew up with and when times got tough, I turned to God and the church and never looked back.”

“As human beings we’re a body and spirit, so we need to feed both of them and some of the lessons I learned in sports, both in baseball and in soccer, have stayed with me.”

“When I get to heaven… I’ll just be overwhelmed by God himself and the heavenly hosts and all that.”

“Basically, my whole career as a journalist, as an editor, as a publicist, has been in the Catholic faith.  So, God had this plan for me, that I never could have foreseen to be working in His church for my entire life.”

“And my boss said, ‘Would you like to meet the Pope?’  And I said, ‘Do you need to ask?! If there’s a list, just put me on it, please.’  And they put me on the list and on October 1st, 1997, I met John Paul II for the first time.”

“I’m just a farm kid from Saskatchewan, I’m speaking to the greatest Pope in a thousand years and he’s listening to me.  Incredibly humble.  I felt very humble to have that opportunity…  Not only that, I got to attend his Mass, in his private chapel, in the Papal apartments, across the hall from his bedroom, his study where he did all of his great work.  In his private chapel where he prayed and did some of his greatest work.  And it was one of the greatest days of my life.”

“I do find (Pope St. John Paul II) as – because I met him so many times – as one of my personal patrons.  So absolutely, I pray for his intercession pretty regularly.”

“When I was a teenager, I made a pledge to ride my bicycle across Canada – five thousand miles – to raise awareness for Pro-Life issues.  My parents vetoed that idea, but I publicly said that I would do this and made the commitment to do this as a 16-year old Canadian kid. So, Pro-Life has been one of my passions.”

Related link:

Patrick’s book – 100 Ways John Paul II Changed the World