- schools,
- hospitals,
- social service organizations,
- peace and justice organizations, and
- environmental organizations.
These institutions are all dedicated to carrying out the Franciscan mission of serving others and promoting peace and justice in the world.
]]>This Holy Week, the Franciscan Center is offering one of these opportunities – The Tridium – Entering the Mystery: United with Jesus from Death to Life. Starting the morning of Holy Thursday, April 6 thru Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023, Fr. Kevin Tortorelli, O.F.M. will lead participants thru Jesus’ journey from death to life. The format of this retreat provides opportunities for overnight stay (including all meals) or daily commuter.
For detailed information, including pricing and to register, please visit our website at franciscancentertampa.org or call us at 813-229-2695, Monday – Friday.
St. Anselm provided an excellent description of what a retreat is supposed to be:
Come now, little one, put aside your business for a while,
take refuge for a time from your tumultuous thoughts,
cast off your care, and let your burdensome distractions wait.
Take some leisure for God; rest awhile in him.
Enter into the chamber of your mind;
put out everything except God and whatever helps you to seek him;
close the door and seek him.
Say now to God with all your heart:
“I seek thy face, O Lord, thy face I seek!”
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Saturday, May 1, 2021
Franciscan Center Tampa
Join the Worldwide Labyrinth Walk at 1:00 p.m.
Bring a box of cereal to feed hungry local kids!
Each year, the first Saturday in May is World Labyrinth Day! That’s when thousands around the world walk together in a moving meditation for world peace. According to the World Labyrinth Society, It’s a worldwide action to “walk as one at 1 o’clock,” which creates a “rolling wave of peaceful energy around the world.”
This year we invite you to the Franciscan Center to walk our labyrinth. The event is free, and if you like, you can help feed local children through summer. Just bring a box or two of cereal with you on May 1.
We’ll join the worldwide walk at 1 p.m. and we’ll be here from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come by to walk at any time or drop off cereal during those hours. You can also drop cereal off here any day during business hours through May 14.alk
]]>Join the Cereal For Summer Food Drive At The Franciscan Center
Starting May 1st through May 7th, join the Franciscan Center in collecting donations of boxes of breakfast cereal as part of Feeding Tampa Bay’s Cereal for Summer program.
Suggested donations are:
- Dry cereal – boxes or bags (think nutritious cereals like Cheerios, Chex, or Wheaties!)
- Cereal/Breakfast Bars
- Granola
- Oatmeal
We will be accepting donations Monday through Friday at the Franciscan Center from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. from May 1 through May 7.
On Saturday, May 7th, we will be accepting donations from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.
If you drop off your cereal donation on Saturday, May 7, feel free to join us for World Labyrinth Day! We’ll be walking around our labyrinth for world peace.
Our address:
3010 N. Perry Avenue
Tampa, FL 33603
10:00 A.M. ~ 12:00 P.M.
Presented by: Maureen Connors, Ph.D.
“Superficiality is the curse of our age…. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” -Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline
February 23: Exploring Our Spiritual Path to God: Six Ways to Follow Christ
Richard J. Foster, author of Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, identifies six dimensions of faith and practice that are at the core of the Christian tradition: contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational. These six streams of living water all grow out of Jesus’ ministry. If we overemphasize one over the rest, it can lead to lopsidedness in our prayer life.
Register for February 23 here.
March 2: Getting Lost as a Spiritual Practice: The Journey of Lent as a Lesson in Life Transitions.
In her book, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, Barbara Brown Taylor, identified getting lost as a spiritual practice. In our lives, change or “life quakes” often challenge us to “get lost” for some time until our spirits and our psyches catch up with the change. Explore how to embrace these times with grace and courage.
March 9: Forgiveness Is A Lovely Idea Until We Have Something to Forgive
Often the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it well: “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” Henri Nouwen sees forgiveness as “the cement of community life.” As we deepen our Lenten practices, we will explore forgiveness and its key role in our personal and community lives.
March 16: Journaling as a Spiritual Practice
Journaling allows us to record personal insights, feelings, or important remembrances that show up during meditation. . however we use journaling, “it is designed to facilitate what is occurring at a deeper, reflective level in the wider domain of one’s mind, heart, and spirit.” Phillip Cover and Donna Mollenkopf, Inner Work for Lent.
March 23: Using Our Creativity as a Spiritual Practice: Let’s Explore New Ways to Pray.
. . . making art is possible for all, a joy to most, and is for many a “way in” to God’s healing, loving presence. . . . Claiming this way in as part of an ordinary prayer life can allow a new awareness of God’s expansive, creative, Holy Presence. –Lynn Penny, “Praying in Color”, Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, Volume 13, Number 4.
Materials Needed for March 16 and 23: Plan to have pencils, crayons or colored pens, and paper available for these programs.
Suggested fee $10.00 per retreat or pay what you can afford. All proceeds go to support the work of the Franciscan Center (no refunds)
Maureen Connors, Ph.D., serves as a spiritual companion, retreat leader, meeting facilitator, and lover of stories with several assisted living clients. Maureen is the former Co-Director of Programs at the Center where she has offered numerous programs over the years. As an octogenarian, she is facing the challenge of the last third of life issues and trying to do it with grace and courage!
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Looking for something meditative, safe, and fun to do to ring in the spring? Join us just before sunset the night before the Spring Equinox, and we’ll walk the beautiful labyrinth that’s on our property here along the Hillsborough River.
A labyrinth is a geometrically designed walking path leading to and from a central point.
First-timers are welcome and encouraged. We will observe social distancing, and masks will be required.
The event is FREE, and donations will be accepted. Join us!
Equinox Labyrinth Walk, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. March 19, 2021
We will be offering $10.00 dinners from Mission BBQ
Salmon Dinners
Quantiles are limited ~First come first serve to start at 6:30 p.m.
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God often leads us in our journey by way of dreams, especially at times of confusion or doubt. Our Franciscan Tradition has always valued dreams as a way in which God communicates at various times in our lives. Join us as we consider together how dreams have played an important role in the life of St. Francis of Assisi and in our own personal lives, especially during times of discernment and conversion.
Registration: Click here to Register
Sr. Jeanne Williams, OSF is a Franciscan Sister of Allegany who has many years of experience as an educator, certified spiritual director, retreat leader, and licensed massage therapist. Sr. Jeanne was previously a team member on the staff at the Franciscan Center from 1981 – 1993 and again from 2012 to 2016. She has served in leadership in her Congregation and as Co-director of the Franciscan Sisters’ Associate Program. Her areas of expertise include dream work, liturgical music and dance, and holistic spirituality which integrates body, mind, and spirit.
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Tampa Bay Prays II is our newest version of the beloved 2005 Tampa Bay Prays, which celebrated our 35th anniversary. And for our 50th year, we are happy to offer this treasure to the community once again. This collection of special prayers illustrates the impact of the Mission of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany to build community in Tampa Bay and how it has grown into a vibrant spiritual family over the last 50years. It offers joy, laughter, inspiration, and insight from diverse faiths and backgrounds.
We hope you enjoy this book and choose to use it in your conversations with God. May the prayers in this book help bring you blessings and peace.
All proceeds from the sale of the booklet go towards supporting the mission of the Franciscan Center.
The price is $10.00 plus $4.25 to cover shipping and postage costs.
]]>Maureen Connors, PhD., offered guidance to participants through this transformative and meditative activity, and we shared our experiences around a fire when we finished. Over 60 people joined us for our meditative, safe, and fun night under the light of the full moon.
A labyrinth is a geometrically designed walking path leading to and from a central point. It is not a maze; you cannot get lost. There are no dead ends. The goal is orientation – not disorientation! The labyrinth, located outdoors here on the grounds along the Hillsborough River, is designed after a thirteenth-century labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France.
Labyrinth walks have been used for centuries and in many cultures as a tool for prayer, healing, and personal and spiritual growth. Walking a labyrinth has something to offer everyone. It can get creative juices flowing, help with grief, anger, a physical challenge or illness, encourage gratitude, or simply give time to reflect on life.
We’ll be doing these quarterly, so sign up at the bottom of our Home Page to receive our e-newsletters and keep checking back here, and we’ll let you know when the next Labyrinth Walk will take place. The event is always FREE, and donations will be accepted. First-timers are welcome and encouraged! Social distancing practices will be observed and masks will be required.
Here’s what our Labyrinth looks like in the day time:
Here are some photos from January 28:
You can watch (and listen) to a beautiful short video here:
]]>Franciscan Center Gift Certificates are available in any denomination and are good for all Center events, retreats, food/beverage, merchandise, etc. Stop by the Franciscan Center office or call 813-229-2695 to purchase.
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