For the past week I was over in Philly volunteering at the St. Francis Inn. This is the second year that I've went there with PSF for a service trip, but if you don't remember what it is check out what I wrote last year after I came back from my first trip to the Inn.

This year's trip was so absolutely amazing... great times, great people, and a whole lots of faith. You can't get too much better than that. All of the same team members were there, although we didn't get to spend as much time with Fr. Fran as we did last year. We did spend a lot of time with the FVMs though. The FVMs (Franciscan Volunteer Ministers) are young adults, usually right out of college, that spend a year either in Philly or in Deleware doing service. The FVMs this year were these four awsome guys (and total goofballs) named Tim, Matt, Dan and LJ. All of them are recent college grads, except for Matt who just finished his soph year of college and is taking a break before finishing up school. But anyway, they're all really fun and we had some good times playing Cranium and Sorry and just chatting. They all have some really interesting things to say, and I'm glad we all got a chance to meet. It was actually Tim who gave me that quote that I put up the other day by Rilke.

I met some pretty cool guests this year also. There was this one guy Chris who was so much fun to talk to. He's one of those people that Fr. Fran says "has more faith in their pinky than you do in your entire body." It's so inspiring to meet people that are going through some really hard times, yet still have so much faith in God... it's incredible. On our last day there two of the guests also got baptised and confirmed, also equally incredible.

All in all, I love the Inn and all the time I spend there. Life there is just so simple and so real. None of the superficial and fake stuff that you see in college, and basically everywhere else. You wake up, eat breakfast, go to mass, help out the community for a few hours while meeting some amazing people, eat dinner, hang out, and go to bed. Well, thats the gist of it anyway. Less is more, right? One of the Fransiscan vows is to "become poor as Christ was poor as to become rich in God's mercy." All I know that my faith was stronger than ever at the Inn, and if leading a simple life is the way to have that, then so be it. The more I go to the Inn, the more I want to be a FVM for a year or two when I graduate. We'll wait and see what happens in two years. :)