In this case, Maggie. Maggie was my English Springer Spaniel. I was inspired to post it due to the really nifty blog posted by Fr. John Boyle, of St. Simon Stock in Ashford, England. See his story re: doing a blessing for a horse named Apollo here.This photo was taken at Mission San Diego de Alcala, in about 1990. The parish annually has a "Blessing of the Animals" event during its "Festival of the Bells" celebrations. The hand doing the blessing, belongs to Msgr. Thomas Prendergast, then pastor of the San Diego Mission. He's just recently retired "in residence" at my own parish church in San Diego. Back in the mid-70s, Fr. Prendergast was the first priest I ever served Mass for, when I was in college.
I do hope God reconsiders letting our pets into heaven....like He changed His mind regards having more "Noah" incidents. ;-D I figure that if maybe enough people ask about it....
Child: "Sister, will Spot be in heaven too?"
Sister: "You will have ALL the things you need in heaven to make you happy."
Perfect answer. They must have all went to the same "nun school" for this one.
Consider this, in the case of dogs at least:
You might be as good as your dog IF ...
you can start the day without caffeine;
you can get along without pep pills;
you can eat the same food daily and be grateful;
you can understand when there is no time for you;
you can overlook when things are taken out on you;
you can take criticism and blame without resentment;
you can face the world without lies and deceit;
you can conquer tension without medical help;
you can relax without liquor;
you can sleep without drugs;
deep in your heart there is no prejudice against creed, color, religion, politics, educations, disability, or financial status.
Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.
Anyone else have any "blessing of the animals" photos they'd like to share?
3 comments:
Karen
I appreciate your link. I'll consider doing a pet's blessing at some point. Any excuse to use the Latin! ;-)
You betcha!!! It goes over really well. Typically, when parishes do these thing, they will also give out little St. Francis of Assissi [too many s's in there] medals to the person getting the pet blessed. Fortunately, they also had someone doing polaroid instant photos, because also typically, we'd forgotten our camera in those pre-digital camera days.
Maggie was REALLY "rutchie" [a Pennsylvania Dutch term for "squirming around"] that day too. which is why I was holding her.
"I want to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am."
-Anonymous, I believe
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