St. Francis Inn

Room at the Inn is a film made in 2006 about the Franciscan Inn and it's development since the 70's.   The guests remain the same.  The volunteers and FVM's come and go.  But the core team remains and has changed significantly.  The Fathers, friars, nuns, and the lay team wrinkled and grayed.  They have become more joyful and warm.  That's what thirty years of commitment, repetition,  and daily sacraments will do to you.

This life is available to all.  Common people turned into saints and hero's.   Could we, flawed as we are, be this in Tampa?  In some ways it's as easy as merely copying ideas and implementing them in Tampa.  More challenging, it's adopting the lifestyle of passionate sacrifice that is available to all.  The only requirement is daily renewal of intention.  We are both inspired yet guided by St. Francis Inn.   

The embracing of the Franciscan tau- "try, try again"

The Inn creates magic despite constant threats from the city due to loitering.  They provide a place and times of joy and celebration.  Yesterday Jon and I attended their annual block party.  The guests at the Inn, daily humbled by having to seek free meals due to poverty get a chance to celebrate life and all their blessings.   There were clowns and pony rides for the kids a mist the littered and disease infested street, under the elevated train that runs several times an hour and rumbles the place.   Delicious baked chicken and dessert.  A DJ whom we found out left years of professional DJ'ing to become a Father.  He now drives up yearly for this block party.  

The Inn is the flower that grows in a cracked sidewalk.