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, Missouri with his wife, Sue. They have two grown and married children and Steve is “Pop” to five grandchildren — Noah, Kate, Laney, Jake and Jason. 

Steve has been a regular contributor to Living Faith since 1988 and to Living Faith Kids since its inception. He is the author of a series of booklets for Catholic kids and families (many co-written with his wife and son) published by Creative Communications for the Parish and Liguori Publications. He is also a monthly “Faith Perspectives” columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He sees his job as a devotional writer as preaching—of opening and interpreting the Word of God for all, and he especially enjoys “remembering what it’s like to be a kid” when he writes for Living Faith Kids.

Diagnosed in 2007 with a rare blood disease, Steve underwent chemotherapy treatment for more than three years, and that experience is the subject of his book, Embraced by God: Facing Chemotherapy with Faith (Twenty-Third Publications).

A native of St. Louis and a long-time university administrator, he retired as associate vice chancellor and chief of staff in the Office of the Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a graduate of the Spiritual Direction program at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, where he now takes occasional classes and sits on the Institute’s Board of Trustees. He is the executive director of the Bridges Foundation, where he is also a prayer companion for individuals praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in everyday life.

Find Steve's blog at Givens Creative.