St. Anthony Messenger: Replacing Moral Outrage with Curiosity and Wonder
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STEPHEN COPELAND
AUTHOR & STORYTELLER
At the start of the 2024 summer Olympics, Pope Francis called upon the world to honor the “spirit of fraternity” that the games were...
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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