[Gpdd] Misc: Blessing of the Animals

Carla Martinez cmartinez36 at houston.rr.com
Thu Oct 6 19:50:02 EDT 2005


Hi guys,

Awhile back I wrote and told you all I talked to my priest to see if he
would do an animal blessing for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. He
sounded interested in doing it, but I didn't hear anything more about it
til last wheekend. My mom's priest says, "Oh bless your own animals." So
I feel lucky to have an understanding priest.

Long story short, we did the blessing on Tuesday night! About 20 people
brought their pets. They were mostly all dogs except there was one cat
and one guinea pig :) BTW, There was one dog beautifully attired in a
Green Bay Packers jersey. :) 

It was a beautiful evening to get blessed: warm but not hot, and not so
humid in the grassy courtyard of our church. Our priest's name is Father
Philip and he also brought a friend who maybe is a monk. That guy was
wearing the old brown robe with the rope belt like in pictures of St.
Francis. Fr. Philip read something about animals who have saved lives,
like Jonah that was saved by a big fish, and some other ones. Then he
said a prayer about animals serving our needs. And he splashed Holy
Water on them from a silver bowl.

I couldn't hear so well because Snowball and I were behind him, because
most all of the dogs were in front of him. If you know what I mean! Had
to protect my gentle little herbivore! 

After the formal blessing, people socialized and got to know each
other's pets. I made sure Father Philip met Snowball, and he gave
Snowball a little Holy Water cross on his back and said a prayer that
Snowball not get sick. My husband was taking pictures and Fr. Philip
offered to take our picture with our pets. So he sat down his prayerbook
and Holy Water on the grass, and our dog Fluff went to drink the Holy
Water. But Fr. Philip was too fast for Fluff!

It was a nice event, really sweet and special. If I ever get to it I
will put pics on our blinkz site. So if you didn't get to bless your
piggies at an official blessing on October 4, you can at least bless
your own animals :) (I'm sure most piggie slaves do that every day
anyway :)

Carla, Snowball, and Snickers in our hearts








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