St. Anthony Messenger: Replacing Moral Outrage with Curiosity and Wonder
At the start of the 2024 summer Olympics, Pope Francis called upon the world to honor the “spirit of fraternity” that the games were...
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STEPHEN COPELAND
AUTHOR & STORYTELLER
Franciscan Media: The Franciscan Friar Who Taught Me to Read
There’s a line from the poet Robert Lax that would always make my dear friend, Fr. Dan Riley, choke up. That line was this: “We rose and...
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Franciscan Media: All In, Let Go
In a recent episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s popular Fly on the Wall podcast, their guest, Jerry Seinfeld, discussed how he has...
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St. Anthony Messenger: Building Peace in a Nation Divided
I remember when I realized a new age of discourse was upon us. It was mid-November 2016. A contentious election had resulted in the...
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St. Anthony Messenger: Panting After Peace in Prayer
As I began climbing the mountain at the Franciscan sanctuary of La Verna in central Italy, the great Franciscan theologian Bonaventure’s...
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NCR: St. Francis, Kurt Vonnegut and the radical absurdity of the Incarnation
My 19-month-old pointed toward his shelf of Christmas books, "Boke?" He wanted to pick another book for me to read to him before bed,...
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St. Anthony Messenger: Shalom—A Christmas Reflection
The first time I took my Southern wife to my childhood home in Indiana for the holidays, she told me she felt like she was stepping into...
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NCR: Listening with Franciscan ears
I learned to listen at the Double Door Inn. Many times I'd step into that ramshackle music venue in Charlotte, North Carolina, carrying...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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,...
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