One of my ministries chooses a piece of scripture to analyze each week. This week, we discussed Matthew 14:13-21 where Jesus feeds the 5000. It reads: “As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. Bring them here to me,” he said.” This story offers a few different interpretations of its meaning. In my eyes, this story reveals how we can offer whatever we have and everything we have to support those in need. [...]

Mistakes happen all the time. It’s hard to forget though when you are someone like me who has expectations for everything to be perfect. Nowhere else embraces mistakes like the St. Francis Inn. You can’t predict what will happen each new day; medical emergencies, volunteers canceling, or fights occurring in the yard. When things like this happen, you have to adapt and adjust and be ok with not having a perfect outcome. At the Inn, You are reminded of how imperfect you are and how imperfect God’s children are. (Everyone is imperfect except for Sister Mary, we all know this). You might forget a step in the cleaning-up process, you might run late to events, forget to record the first ticket number for the meal or lose your patience [...]

An FVM Alumni Reflection Entitled A Revised Prayer of St. Francis.

One of the truly blessed and unexpected lessons I've learned so far is how much the communities around me live in the moment. I have the opportunity to serve many different groups of people from individuals with intellectual disabilities attending day programs to people experiencing homelessness receiving meals and clothes from different outreach locations.  What inspires me the most about these people is how much they live in the moment. They do not worry about what has happened in the past or about the future but they try to enjoy the moment we share together.  I feel honored and seen to have their full attention as they are fully present in the moment and in our time together. I have learned to adjust my thinking and my actions to [...]

In November of 2021, Commonweal Magazine published a special issue with the heading "The Varieties of Religious Community Today" in which a collection of articles profiled the charism, ministry, and community life of a variety of religious communities throughout the United States. Commonweal did an admirable job of featuring a wide range of lay and vowed religious communities of various sorts, including a Catholic Worker house, a Norbertine Abbey, and intentional communities of laypeople in both New York City and rural West Virginia. Notably missing from Commonweal's issue on the religious communities of today, however, was the Franciscan Community at St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia. I think this is a shame. After all, the model of the community which runs the Inn is one of the most ingenious, unique, [...]