Annual Blessing Of Pets
Our annual Blessing Of Pets will take place on Sunday, October 7th at the beginning of 11am Holy Mass. The Holy Mass will take place in the parish hall. Well behaved dogs, cats, fish, birds and all God’s creatures are invited with their owners. The blessing will be given in commemoration of the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4). As we know, animals trusted St. Francis and he treated them with courtesy. Near the end of his life St. Francis composed a song of praise and thanks to God for all his creations, called “Canticle to Brother Sun” – also known as the “Canticle of the Creatures.” From this song we know that St. Francis did not perceive himself isolated from other creatures. He simply assumed that all creatures – not only humans – form one family of creation. So we are encouraged to bless and praise God with cats, dogs, birds and all God’s creatures.
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In Hebrew, Michael means “who is like God” which is traditionally interpreted as a rhetorical question: “Who is like God?” (which expects an answer in the negative) to imply that no one is like God. In this way, Michael is reinterpreted as a symbol of humility before God. In the Old Testament Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, once as a “great prince who stands up for the children of your people.” The idea that Michael was the advocate of the Jews became so prevalent that in spite of the rabbinical prohibition against appealing to angels as intermediaries between God and his people, Michael came to occupy a certain place in the Jewish liturgy.
