The Blessing of the Animals
We attend a church, St. Gregory the Great, about two miles away along a country lane. But there is a larger church, Our Lady of Mercy, with a school and a Monsignor, a half-mile away in town. We sometimes attend Mass there when the schedule is better amidst our travels.
However, we always attend when they bless the animals, which our own church doesn’t do. Once a year, in connection with St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, we gather on a Saturday morning in the school’s huge parking lot for a brief service with a priest, organ, and hymns, and about 50 animals.
This year there were about 40 dogs, of which Koufax was the outstanding looker, a white vision amongst the purebreds and hybrids. Even Buddy Beagle is resigned to second banana, since a white German Shepherd dog is both rare and quite large. (Buddy is more sociable however, and Koufax often tries to get a piece of another large dog, and it’s a good thing I work out.)
There were turtles, cats, hamsters, and then a horse trailer pulled up with a gargantuan, gorgeous black stallion. His owner slowly backed him out, everyone took photos, and then the service began, with the priest sprinkling holy water throughout the interspecies crowd. Once we concluded, coffee and donuts were served, and our guys nabbed a couple of munchkins, of course.
It was a wonderful way to begin a Saturday. The animals were blessed, and we all focused on how much we were blessed by their presence.
© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.
Pat Tith
Our wonderful animals. What would life be without them. Thanks for sharing this event with us.
Shirley A Burns
Our pastor started that at our parish last year, it has become very popular very quickly. He says one time ~ at his previous parish ~ someone brought their horse!