In honor of St. Francis of Assisi, Father Hoefler held a blessing of the pets on 
Friday, October 3, 2008.

 Sponsored by the God’s W.I.S.H. committee

Annual Blessing of the pets

Our October saint to honor will be St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the ecology.  St. Francis’ feast day is October 4^th.  St. Francis was a Roman Catholic saint who followed all Jesus said and did.  As a young man, Francis liked to have a good time.  His father was rich.  Once, when he was sick, Francis heard our Lord calling him to leave the world and follow him.  Francis began to visit the hospitals and to serve the sick.  He used to say, “When one serves the poor, he serves Christ himself.”

St Francis looked on all people and animals as his brothers and sisters because they were all created by God.  He took 12 young men to Rome with him, and the Pope gave him permission to start a new religious order, the Franciscans.

St. Francis also had a great love for all creatures.  He loved the larks flying about his hilltop town.  He and his early brothers, staying in a small hovel, allowed themselves to be displaced by a donkey.  Francis wrote a Canticle of the Creatures, an ode to God’s living things. “All praise to you, Oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures.”

At Franciscan churches, a friar with brown robe and white cord often welcomes each animal with a special prayer.

The Blessing of Pets goes like this: