STEPHEN COPELAND

AUTHOR & STORYTELLER

RELEVANT Magazine: Attending Concerts Is a Spiritual Discipline

Trappist monk Thomas Merton once wrote a beautiful essay titled “Rain and the Rhinoceros” where he meditated upon a rainstorm from his...

Chapter 1: That's What Love Can Do

A candle burned between us in a small, dim conference room. “Have you ever been to the Double Door Inn?” my mentor asked. I drew a blank....

St. Anthony Messenger: Presence and Surrender

As I gave our son his nightly bath, my wife, Lauren (who I call La La), showered in the other bathroom. It dawned on me: Is this the only...

St. Anthony Messenger: The Franciscan Connection to the Stations of the Cross

“Why did Jesus have to die?” the pastor proposed after a tirade about the fallenness and brokenness of the human race. Those at the youth...

St. Anthony Messenger: Sisters to Brother Wolf

Nicole Rogers had just moved into a red barn house in the rural town of Montgomery, Texas. It was nightfall. Nestled in towering pines,...

St. Anthony Messenger: On the Front Lines of Human Trafficking

Cynthia Perkins never got the chance to meet Father Bob Wheelock. But on August 7, 2020, she attended his funeral. She wanted to say...

St. Anthony Messenger: Dances and Diapers

I hold my newborn son; he holds my gaze. As I carry him in my arms, he carries my heart to a new place. I notice every shift of his eyes,...

St. Anthony Messenger: Live in Me, Love in Me, Act in Me

Etched on the back of my mother’s headstone are three simple prayers: “Lord, live in me, love in me, and act in me.” Adapted from...

'There's still work to do'

“There’s still work to do,” I heard him say on a video screen. His words were faint, soft, broken. Norberto, a Paraguayan missionary who...

St. Anthony Messenger: Praying without Words

How do I begin writing about prayer when I have not felt like praying? It’s not that I’m angry at God. It’s not that I’m indifferent to...