Blessing of the Animals

For years, I've read articles in our local paper about the annual Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day. Which means that for years, I've missed it and every time, I kick myself. This year, I didn't and spent some time at St. James Cathedral on Saturday at the service for animals. I was asked to share some of my photos with our local community newspaper, The Bulletin, which I gladly did. You can see them here. And here are some of the rest.

 There was a brief service and a choir 


and several other aspects that normally go into being a church. And then there were things that were less regular, but really wonderful and, in my opinion, things that should be included in every church service. Because they were love embodied and personified and isn't that what Christianity is all about?

Such as dogs. Like this one – what a wonderful face!


During the sermon, these two communed



and one of the great things about being a dog is that you don't have to stand up when everybody else do

 

Over to the side behind the bushes, two of the Cathedral staff looked on

 

And then everyone got in line to see Bishop Linda Nicholls
 

Although most of the attendees were dogs, there was a horse (which I missed) and a few cats

 

This beauty is blind and the first time I teared up was when she got blessed.

 

This one got me going, too

 

These two were in particular need of being blessed, after trying to bite the Bishop

 

And it was all these small moments, such as this one, that opened my heart and moved me deeply

 

Had to take a photo of this wee cutie, which reminded me of our much beloved and never-forgotten Trine

 

It was a beautiful day and I'll be sure to go back next year.
    




Comments

Rachel said…
I am in the choir at my local Episcopalian church (my those robes look familiar!) and the blessing of the animals is, bar none, my favorite thing we do all year. This year it was mostly dogs and cats, but we did have somebody show up with a couple of donkeys!

Lovely pictures of a lovely day.
10:48 PM
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