Steve Givens is a retreat and spiritual director and a widely published writer on issues of faith and spirituality. He is also a musician, composer and singer who lives in St. Louis, Mo., with his wife, Sue. They have two grown and married children and five grandchildren.
He has been a regular contributor to the daily devotional “Living Faith” for more than 35 years and is the author of a series of booklets for Catholic kids and families (many co-written with his wife and son) published by Liguori Publications and Creative Communications for the Parish. He has written five children’s books published by New Canaan Publishing and is also the author of a number of books on Catholic prayer and teaching, including “Building Family Prayer & Traditions” and “Getting Confirmed: A Journey of Questions and Answers,” published by Redemptorist Publications (UK).
For several years he was a monthly “Faith Perspectives” blogger and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLToday and an occasional contributor to magazines like Catholic Digest and Liguorian. More recently, he has begun publishing reflections and audio stories through Jesuit Media Lab.
Diagnosed in 2007 with a rare blood disease called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, he underwent chemotherapy treatment for more than three years, and that experience is the subject of his book, “Embraced by God: Facing Chemotherapy with Faith,”released in 2010 by Twenty-Third Publications.
A native of St. Louis and a long-time university administrator, he is the retired associate vice chancellor and chief of staff in the Office of the Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. A spiritual director and retreat facilitator, he is a graduate of the Spiritual Direction program at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis and now sits on the Institute’s Board of Trustees and serves as an adjunct instructor in lay formation.
As a composer and performer, he has performed and recorded with several St. Louis-area folk and Christian bands over the past 40 years, including the folk-rock-roots band, the Mo Bottom Project. With the band Nathanael’s Creed he recorded three CDs, including 2009’s Christmas project, “Home Again with You.” Nathanael’s Creed performed all of its concerts as benefits. In 1999 he produced “Seed & Sower: A Benefit for the Farm of the Child,” which raised nearly $10,000 for a Honduran orphanage. He has produced and recorded nine collections of music for himself and others, and his songs have been recorded by several other independent artists.
His voice and his music have been used in many video and audio productions, including two Emmy Award-winning PBS documentaries. His songwriting has been recognized by the Kerrville Music Foundation, the “Song of the Year” contest, Billboard Magazine Songwriting Contest, and the St. Louis Songwriting Contest.
Contact:
email: givenscreative@gmail.com
Hi Steve: Saw the article about you in the St. Louis Review. Hope you’re having a good summer. Take care, Gloria
Thanks, Gloria. I’m doing well. I’m doing chemo this week but they are hopeful that this will be it for a while…
Hi Steve,
I am an avid reader of Living Faith and have been appreciated very much your comments on the readings of the day – I specially appreciated the one of to-day – 2nd September 2010. God Bless
Enjoyed your reflection today in the living word an I had to find your blog. So glad to be able to now read more and also pray for your healing.
Thanks, Diane. I’m doing well these days but appreciate your prayers. Have a great day and a looong weekend…
Steve
Steve, I’m glad that Living Faith published your website on September 2nd. I have admired and looked forward to your writings in that publication for several years now. I welcome this opportunity to express my appreciation and tell you that I enjoy your writings which are so insightful. I also happen to live rather close which causes me to have an even greater ability to relate to your comments.
I see that a good number of us were glad to receive your blog address!
I read Living Faith every day and begin to feel like “family” with you folks who send us your thoughtful comments so frequently.
It’s great to get to know you a little better!
Peace and prayers.
Bless you, Steve! I also look forward to your Living Faith reflections. You are an inspiration to me…to many! May Our Lord and Our Lady bless you with healing, hope and health! My prayers are with you and for you today and beyond!
Thanks very much, Mary Ann. The opportunity of writing for Living Faith has been a real blessing in my life.
Steve
I’ve read the Living Faith for years. I just read this days verse & your story, I’ve enjoyed all your captions, but today I read it & I realize the man of God you are. With the disease you have, I pray the Chemo kills it,but as you walk your journey with God, bottom line is, God is all you need, to pour the hope of Christ into your life.
God bless you.
Hi Steve…I, too, have enjoyed reading your reflections in the Daily Word…I will keep you in my prayers…peace and good…
Hello Mr. Givens,
I am a child of GOD, wife, mother and grandmother of 6, and I’m 65 years old.
I finally see the face of the name I have tried to contact for decades. I must add, you do not look at all the way I had pictured you to look like! 🙂
The reason why I always wanted to contact you is that I see your name in The Living Faith very often, and I love your reflections there. One day, several years back, you wrote a reflection in honor of “Your children grown and gone”, I tore that page and “recited it as a prayer” for my own children grown and gone. I “recited” it daily, for I loved the way you ask our Heavenly Father to be with your own children, I made that prayer my own also. However, something terribly sad happened to me concerning my children ways towards me ,and, being hurt to the core of my being, I had stopped praying that now yellowed and overused page with that prayer on it, and I put it aside, for that prayer did not correspond to the deep hurt feelings I was continuing to experience as they saw fit.
During those hard times I was getting deeper and deeper into trusting our Heavenly Father, thus I decided to create a website so as to share, with the world, how PAPA DIEU -French for ABBA DADDY- touched and was touching my life. I felt a deep hunger to share it all with the world so to have HIM known a little better through my life’s journey.
I was asked several times by visitors to “add more prayers” something I added in my Guest Book to know if someone had suggestions to add something more. So late last year I added a Prayer site in my website http://www.a-rare-flower.com/index.html. In looking for prayers to add, in my Bible’s back cover with piles of other papers I found my yellowed and very much used page where you had written that reflection. I immediately made a background for it and published it in my Prayers site.
Here is the final reason why I am writing, I am asking you if that was “OK” to add that “prayer” reflection into my website, in other words did I break your Copyright?
Thank you so very much for your time. I am asking PAPA DIEU to continue to be with you during this trying time, battling cancer in you life.
May HE richly Bless you and continues to show Himself through you!
Prayerfully yours,
Bebianne Clavette
PS. I will come visit your site for sure!
Hi Steve,
Loved the reflection today in the Living Faith.I really find God in the quiet.When awakening I do a two hour silent retreat on my own and then I go to Daylesford Abbey {a local abbey}for 30 minutes of meditation before Vespers and 15 minutes afterwards.That is a true blessing.
Thanks again for your wonderful writing and am praying for your chemo,Steve.
Peace and blessings,
Karen
What a blessing, indeed, to have that so close by and to have the time to devote to prayer on a daily basis. Say a prayer for me! No chemo or other treatments right now…I’m feeling great!
All the best,
Steve
Dear Mr. Givens,
I am a 69 year old grandmother, and I have been reading Living Faith for the 11 years that I have been a Catholic. It was given to me when I was in RCIA, and although I have been blessed by all of you who offer reflections, this is the first time I have written. But what you said about “quiet reflextions” on July 6th (yesterday) I had to respond to. All my life I was a Protestant, and I will always been grateful for those Christian roots. For those who may not know, though, some Protestant churches can be quite raucious during the sermons with call-outs of “amen” and “preach it brother.” That never bothered me until I started attending Mass with my cradle Catholic husband. The reverence that I experienced was something I guess I was looking for without really knowing it. In these past 11 years, I can not count the times that the Holy Spirit has said to me, “what do you hear Bobbi.” and every time I am amazed to hear NOTHING! A baby may be fussing, but that’s the extent of it. I attend a large church, St. Michael’s in Auburn, Alabama, and even with our large congregation, there is still a reverence and quiet that I know must be pleasing to the Lord. I have also prayed for your cancer, and I hope you remain in remission. God bless you and yours, Bobbi Cushman
Thank you so much for your kind and interesting note, Bobbi. There are times when I, too, like lively music, but I do enjoy the moments of silence, which are sometimes hard to come by in this world. All the best to you and your husband.
My husband and I read Living Faith daily devotional and have read many of your sharings. We love the devotional even though we are United Methodists. I have done spiritual retreats and seminars withint the Catholic tradition and have been enriched, enlightened and blessed. You are in our prayers. Hope your journey with cancer and the side effects of chemo are progressing and that you are still doing welll. I am very familiar with the disease of cancer within my own family and know that is quite a spiritual journey. I will try to read some of your books, etc. soon. Thank you and God Bless.
Thanks for your note, Linda. I’m doing very well and just had a good appointment with my doctor this morning. All clear for now. I’m glad that Living Faith is a part of your spiritual journey, and I thank you for “taking me along with you.” As a convert to Catholicism from a Protestant faith (back when I was 20!) I treasure the interaction between Christians of all denominations and feel we have a lot to learn from one another. My band has performed in quite few UMC churches in the St. Louis area and we always find them inviting and loving. Thanks for taking the time to write.
Steve,
I’m one of those “lapsed” Catholics who in my heart is still Catholic. I read the Living Faith daily message today and thought I’d look you up. I take quiet time every morning and living faith, and Centering Prayer, are part of that.
I wish you joy on your journey of faith.
Barbara
Thanks, Barbara, for your note. I appreciate hearing that Living Faith (and I!) are a part of your continuing journey of faith. Centering prayer is a powerful way to pray, as it certainly frees and opens us up for the movement of God in our lives. Remain open to that movement…who knows where GOd will lead you. Lapsed or not, you have a Catholic faith, and maybe someday God will lead you back to the table. All in your (and God’s) time…
Thanks for your good wishes.
Steve
hello steve,
i have been reading your comments in living faith and sending love and prayers and hope you will soon feel much better.(god bless from united kingdom(cleethorpes)
angela
Thanks for writing, Angela. I am feeling very good these days. In fact, the stem cell transplant ended up not being necessary and all is in remission right now.
Many blessings to you.
Steve
Following your recovery through “Living Faith.” Wish the publication was like “Guideposts”. Each year they publish photos and updates on their authors. I am a 21 year survivor of the cancer monster. I’ve got your back through prayer as you walk this journey. It’s not for wimps!
i enjoy this blog. keep up the good work and i would like to get an email address to speak with you or maybe you can email me using my address above. thanks and God bless!!!
Steve, you have been such an inspiration to me…your faith & your acceptance just impresses me no end. I pray for you daily since I came upon the story of your “journey”. God keep you strong because we need more like you!!
Hi Steve,
Not sure if this is the best way to communicate this but I just read another one of your beautiful reflections in Living Faith. I am so thankful we are ‘journeying’ together. I look forward to your reflections because they are always so Peace giving. You are in my daily prayers.Peace be with you, Bob
Thanks, Bob. Always good to have friends on the journey…
Steve
Yes I enjoy the inspirational reading from this writer
Steve, a very dear friend of mine sent me a link to your website and I read your article on hide and seek with God. It really is inspirational and I want to ready more from you, so I’m subscribing!! Many thanks for your good works!! I wish you well with your health issues. It definately takes faith and courage, however, I’ve found as I struggle with chronic back pain that God does indeed give me peace and strength. Lorraine
Hi Steve,
How are you doing? Recently read your reflections in Living Faith about the Grand Canyon. How true? Thank you for another beautiful reflection. Also read your last blog entry (sorry for not being able to do it more frequently). Very nice. Mirror Lake must be a beautiful place. I’d love to go there and ‘play’ with my camera a bit. How are you doing? What’s new? We are doing okay. Living in NJ we were very fortunate with our minor damage from Hurricane Sandy. Although a number of friends and family were not as fortunate. The devastation was unbelievable. Wishing you and the family a very Blessed Christmas. Thanks for your beautiful and Peace giving reflections. Peace be with you, Bob
Hi Steve,
I enjoy your reflections on blog and in Living Faith. I think your insights about your illness/treatment will be very timely for me. Thanks so much and God bless.
David, from Oklaoma City, Oklahoma. Would like to purchase the song sheet, (Guitar) for Step out of the boat, if that is possible. We, total of three so far, are starting a group and we would like to play and sing this one to start with. Like several other songs you have done, but, have to learn one at a time. Only one of the members has a degree in music. Myself and the other guy are learning as we go. He has been playing for years and years and for myself, I am going on year two. Not a quick learner, but at least I am starting.
Hope it is possible to purchase this song.
DQ
Dear Steve,
Sincere thanks for sharing your post about the grace we can find in “fallowness.” I have recently begun a period of discernment as an applicant for Aspirancy to the Diaconate. And I was feeling that perhaps centered prayer, daily Mass and silence reflection were somehow missing something as part of my discernment process. But your post reminded me that oftentimes we just need to place ourselves in the presence of God through prayer or Adoration, and just absorb his grace and simply encounter God. Many thanks and I look forward to many more posts!
With you in the Immaculate,
Frank
Steve,
Your devotional entries in Living Faith are very inspirational and encouraging, and concretely applicable to living more in union with our Lord. Thanking God for your spiritual contributions.
Thanks, Denise…
Well, in two more days (on 4th September), it will be exactly 70 years since I started school……. in 1st Grade (no Kindergarten then) in a neighborhood one-room country school….. (Grades 1-8). Today I’m on a university campus (MSUM, Moorhead, Minnesota) and preparing for another class attendance day. Some school district Mission Statements speak of producing “lifelong learners.” I guess I’m here!
Navigating thru all the “sophisticated intricacies” (if you will) of websites continues to be a challenge for me. Hopefully this is a comment place where I may offer a response to your devotional texts in LIVING FAITH. 1st September (yesterday) was about offering encouragement. And certainly I believe in that and have tried to make it a way of life for a long time.
Perhaps it is another sign of our “lost” popular culture moving ever-deeper into chaotic collapse when personal initiatives to respectfully acknowledge and offer encouragement are seen as the advances of a sexual predator in an attempt to “groom” a child for future sexual exploitation.
Late in life, I have gone back to school to become a teacher…….. and I’ve been in many schools over the years…… with K-12 students. It has happened, other adults in the school have observed my initiatives and have radically mis-read them and raised accusations to the authorities that I am a sexual predator. And I’ve subsequently been forced out of the school. I leave with one over-powering consolation……. the students themselves did NOT mis-read my heart in my manner of caring about them. Several years ago, I taught Faith Formation to some Middle School students in a parish close to this university campus…… and the same thing happened……. I was forced out of the so-called “Safe Environment” acceptance……. same accusations. I’ve not returned to any teaching ministry in any Catholic Church since. The hurt of it has been deep and extremely bewildering.
It is perhaps commendable to offer counsel on being an encouragement to others…… a Biblical concept and all, but the counsel seems to need some qualification in these times of a collapsing culture in our land. (Reflections…….. thanks for your time to read this.)
Thanks for writing, Donald. I am sorry to hear that your attempts to help have been misunderstood. I will keep you in my prayers…
Steve, I have always loved your reflections in ‘Living Faith’ and was happy to see you have a blog. Looking forward to seeing it regularly. I would also like to ask for you to reserve a copy of “Extrordinary Lives” for me when it comes out. Really beautiful song and a theme that the Lord regularly brings to my day. God bless you.
Thanks, Mary. Nice to “meet: you here…I’ll let everyone know about the CD…
hey there, i am a newly catholic, i enjoy what you write for the lesson books..i live in a small town south of cape girardeau. mo. do you ever get this way..
Thanks for writing, Darla. I wish you well in your journey as a new Catholic and I hope my writing helps you in some small way. I haven’t been down to Cape in a number of years but it’s a beautiful part of the state.
All the best to you.
Steve
Steve,
I continue to enjoy reading your insightful spiritual commentaries that relate real life incidences to God’s Word in the Bible. Your humble approach is encouraging. Blessings in Christ.
Thanks for your kind words, Denise. So glad this is helpful.
Steve, Enjoyed meeting you and being with you this past weekend at the Marianist Retreat & Conference Center. The retreat you guided us through gave me much to ponder and pray on. It was great having your wife there to keep you tethered to the ground as you have been gifted with many talents. Perhaps you could send an email and we could continue talking about spiritual direction.
May the Lord let His face shine on you
Thanks, Jim. It was great meeting you, too. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
I have been reading Living Faith and am so deeply touched by your writings. It is so good to know be part of your blog. Thank you.
Thank you, Mary Jo. Happy to have you here…Steve