A New Novena for Our Newest Saint: Weekly Message for 09-24-2019

Dear Fellow Digital Pilgrim, Pax Christi:

Wouldn’t you like to be able to join Prince Charles and hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims in Rome for the October 13th canonization of John Henry Newman?  Not everyone can be there physically, but I have the deep, deep pleasure of inviting you to follow the experience digitally, through our newest meditation novena.

Many of you are familiar with this new meditation-novena genre because you followed our last one in preparation for St. Mary Magdalen’s feast day this past summer.  Now we are inviting you to follow an even more creative meditation-novena, linked to one of the Church’s soon-to-be newest saints: John Henry Newman.

A close friend of mine who also happens to be a prolific and award-winning writer, Paul McCusker, will be attending Cardinal Newman’s canonization in Rome.  He has generously agreed to allow our digital pilgrims to follow along through a daily blog he will write for us as he makes his way to the Eternal City and participates in the historic event.  This novena of personal reflections and musings on Cardinal Newman, Rome, and the canonization experience will begin on October 11th and take us all the way through the post-canonization celebrations until Paul returns to the States on October 19th.

Paul McCusker is the perfect person to be our eyes and ears in Rome for the nine days surrounding the canonization – and not just because of his gripping, brilliant writing style.  Paul is also a convert to the Catholic faith, and Cardinal Newman – perhaps the world’s most famous nineteenth-century convert to Catholicism – played an important role in his conversion.  Paul also loves England, Cardinal Newman’s home country, and has lived there for extended periods of time. (He also happened to marry an Englishwoman, his beautiful wife Elizabeth). As a father of two, a Regnum Christi member, and a full-time writer for the Augustine Institute, Paul is also right in the thick of the new evangelization.  A nine-day blog of firsthand reflections and experiences woven together into daily installments, therefore, will be fascinating and enriching for all of us.

So don’t miss our newest meditation novena, dedicated to one of the Church’s soon-to-be newest saints!  Sign up now for nine days of musings from Rome about the canonization of John Henry Newman, by RCSpirituality’s newest contributor, Paul McCusker.

In Him,

Fr John Bartunek, LC