Blessing the animals

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi and we had the blessing of the animals. In addition to about 20 dogs, we had a rabbit, a gerbil and a cat.

The two services were surprisingly well-ordered, considering the number of dogs present, but they were well-behaved. I'll have to admit, though, it was hard to focus on my sermon nd I got distracted. Well, probably the blessing of the animals was more important, anyway!

I think I've successfully made the transition from calling them "pets" to "animal companions". The word "pets" has the connotation that we are the owners and they are disposable niceties. But there's been a shift in recent years so that now we think of them as "companions" who shar our life and have a claim on us. We're not "owners", but we're "guardians."

We didn't bring our two cats to church. I don;t think they would have liked it. So we gave them a blessing at home. Any time will do!