Room at the Inn (sandamianofoundation.org) - Inspirational Videos

Room at the Inn tells the inspirational story of the St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen located in the Kensington area of Philadelphia, a dark, brooding, depressed area where poverty, pain and drugs thrive. The Inn is operated by a community of Franciscan friars, sisters and lay people dedicated to living a life of service among the poor. Guests entering the Inn are served much more than a meal: they are shown the love and mercy of God. As a way of acknowledging their dignity as human beings and children of God, the poor are seated at tables and served a hot meal.

Because it was filmed in December of 2005 as the community, the guests and the filmmakers prepared to celebrate the birth of Christ who became poor for us, the film, besides telling the heart-warming story of the Inn, subtly takes on the form of an Advent retreat whose message resounds throughout: the poor, broken and rejected are portals through which we can enter fully into the life of Christ.

After making eight films on poverty, Gerry Straub returns to where his journey with the poor began in order to see what else the St. Francis Inn can teach him about poverty and prayer. In this very personal film, Gerry offers a meditation that encapsulates the rich spiritual insights gathered while filming in some of the poorest places on earth. Room at the Inn is more than a loving appreciation of the St. Francis Inn; it is a penetrating look at the richness of God revealed in the poverty of Christ and how God lives in our poverty and weakness.