Pet blessings

[yessisan]

I’m pretty sure this doesn’t belong here, and if I’m right, I apologize! I didn’t know where else to post this.

So, what’s with the blessing of pets that went on this week?? One of the 2 parishes I attend, had a special time dedicated to blessing pets and now I even found it on the internet news while searching for Catholic news.

 

[MSParrott]

There was a blessing of animals on Oct. 6th in honor of St. Francis at a lot of parishes around where I live (perhaps even around the country). Hope that helps.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

With the feast of St. Francis (yesterday), many Catholic parishes and/or groups offer on the ‘closest’ Sunday a blessing of the animals in honor of good St. Francis, who loved animals so much (indeed, all creation) that he named them as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’.

There are legends told of a wolf who was causing havoc in a town in Italy. St. Francis, it is said, spoke to the wolf, telling him that he was no longer to steal food or threaten the people, as he (Francis) would ask the people to set aside food for the wolf and to refrain from hunting him. The wolf then no longer stole or threatened the people. There are other stories that St. Francis would preach to the animals and birds if there were no people around (and sometimes in ADDITION to having people around).

God bless St. Francis!

 

[water]

On the feast day of the archangels, we also had car blessings.

 

[yessisan]

See? I learn something new every single day!

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

Yesterday we had a blessing of animals at our parish. Nothing unusual (i.e. pythons, donkeys, etc.) but a large number of dogs, a couple of gerbil/hamster/cat food-type vermin, a parakeet, and several surprisingly calm cats, including a Cornish rex. Many of the kids at our school brought animals with them, including stuffed ones, for the blessing.