More pictures from the Blessing of Pets

Over at the Schuette Zoo, Kenda has posted a few pictures from today's Blessing of Pets.

The Blessing of Pets

It is customary to celebrated the Blessing of Pets on the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, October 4th, but since I was away in Quincy on the Feastday we celebrated the blessing this afternoon.

I didn't think to count how many animals and people were present, but I know we had at least ten dogs, one cat and even one rabbit. The hamster that was present last year was not this year and we still haven't had a fish. Maybe next year.

Last year the people naturally gathered today under the shade trees in one group; they didn't this year, and I'm not sure why. I don't think it was as hot this year, though.

Here are a few pictures from the blessing:

The photographer from the Effingham Daily News and I get along well and it's always good to chat with him.

A parishioner and I chat before the blessing.

I'm told that this rabbit often goes for walks.

Here you can see a few of the animals that were brought for the blessing.

I think next year I'm going to try to get a few servers to carry the cross and candles and to hold the book.

Blessing the pets and people with holy water.

Sprinkling a few more animals.

Maybe I also need two servers to hold back the cope.

From the blessing of pets

Prior to the Blessing of Animals on the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, I was hoping for one of two animals to make an appearance: a goldfish or a horse.

I was hoping for a goldfish just for the novelty of it and I was hoping for a horse so that I might afterwards ride down to the highschool (it's only four blocks) for a grand entrance to the soccer game.

But, alas, neither a goldfish nor a horse came to the blessing. We did, though, have a hamster, complete with travelling ball: