Blessing of the Animals

A procession of animals, everything from dogs and cats to hamsters and even horses, is led to churches for a special ceremony called the Blessing of Pets.

This custom is conducted in remembrance of St. Francis of Assisis love for all creatures.
Francis, whose feast day is October 4th, loved the larks flying about his hilltop town.

Francis wrote a Canticle of the Creatures, an ode to Gods living things. All praise to you, Oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures.

That there are today over 60 million birds in the U.S. attests to the continuing affection we have for our furry, feathered or finned friends.

The bond between person and pet is like no other relationship, because the communication between fellow creatures is at its most basic. Eye-to-eye, human and animal, are two creatures of love.

No wonder people enjoy the opportunity to take their animal companions to church for a special blessing. Church is the place where the bond of creation is celebrated.

At Franciscan churches, a friar with brown robe and white cord often welcomes each animal with a special prayer. The Blessing of Pets usually goes like this:

Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless this pet. By the power of your love, enable it to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.

As I watched this video I discovered that we somehow forgot to add pebbles name to the participants. The wonderful thing is that he was the most impacted by this event!
Many images were provided by http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Blessing
• Animals
• Pet
• Bird
• parrots
• overTheRaynbow
• Flying Colors FCBS

[OverTheRaynbow]

I don't think we give animals enough credit for how in tuned they can be about their understanding of the gesture we are making with this blessing. My belief is that they understand more than we think! maybe on a different level than us but in their own language translation? What do you think?

[parrotrjl95]

hi, my name is robert and i have a question: What is wrong with each bird? 1 is a feather plucker..it seems that alot of the comments that u get are judgemental and i think it's wrong to judge a person. i think birds are wonderful and if that's what u find joy and happiness in do it. im glad to see your having fun with all of the birds...i unfortunatly dont' have any birds right now but i hope to get some soon. I have had 22 birds in the past.. the biggest being a cockatiel

[OverTheRaynbow]

PEPITO is a 48 year old Amazon that came to us with health issues. She had a stroke Dec. 2006 and a bumble foot from her past. OLIVER hated his last house and started plucking at only 4 years old. We are trying to help him mature without destroying himself. KIWI was surrendered almost 4 years ago and cant find a home. Lovebirds can bite hard. :-). CC is the new friend for Kiwi. The guy thought he was pulling a fast one but we found out about the scissor beak and working to correct it. Cont...

[OverTheRaynbow]

PEBBLES is a meyers parrot that has been with us for almost 5 years. He is private and unfriendlyand would attack anyone that came near. After this blessing he has actually become very tolerant and calls me and is speaking words to me every day now. I pet him with a feather several times a day but can't pet him outside the cage yet. I don't really care if I ever do but I am glad to see how much happier he is.

Thanks for asking. :-)

[xxheartemotions4]

I Love this video thank you for posting it on youtube :D

[OverTheRaynbow]

Animals can be such a savings grace to so many of in when there is no one else that can possibly understand what we are going through.

God Bless Peaches and You!

Catherine

[OverTheRaynbow]

I believe the official date is Oct. 2nd. Many of the churches and organizations do the ceremony the weekend before or after due to busy schedules.

[OverTheRaynbow]

ARIA and YOKO were victims of extreme abuse and neglect and almost were thrown in a creek by their owner when almost dead. That's when I got them. O'Hanah lost her cage buddy SUNNY 2 years ago when a volunteer let him go. The volunteer didn't want to be here and was doing community time. (lesson learned from that) KIRK is O'Hana's new buddy but his origional owner left him in a room alone for 11 years with a TV after he started making noise. Now he has a living friend. To be Continued...

[OverTheRaynbow]

Aria is doing great. She and Yoko are in the carrier here also. You just can't see them. We have a new website that just came live and I am trying to insert all the content today called flyingcolorsbirds at ORG of course if you would like to visit and see any new info posted.

[tinaschuman1]

This is soooo beautiful. How is Aria?