On St. Francis of Assisi Day, Tuesday October 4th a Blessing of Animals service was held at Grace Anglican Church.
The service included songs, a reading of the story of creation, and prayers of thanksgiving to God for the gift of animals. Then the new priest at Grace Church blessed over twenty-five d0mestic pets that were there with their owners.
Grace’s Reverend Dave Ponting, says that St. Francis is the patron saint of animals. This service is always one of the highlights of the church year for him. “It’s certainly the service I do that is the most fun, though it can get noisy and chaotic. In the past, I’ve been asked to bless dogs, cats, budgies, hamsters, gerbils, snakes, canaries, turtles, and goldfish. This year it was a flying squirrel, which I learned is not a rodent but a marsupial.” One year on St. Francis Day, while he was serving in Jarvis, Ontario, Reverend Ponting had a group of St. John’s Ambulance dog handlers all show up with their dogs for the service. The dogs were part of a therapeutic program that specialized in visits to hospitals, nursing homes and children who were shut in. “It was a sacred moment, blessing the dogs for that very special ministry,” Ponting recalls.
“I once blessed a male ferret whose 10 year old owner had named Xena the Warrior Princess”, Ponting says chuckling at the fond memory. A good friend and fellow priest once wrote a short story about an incident where a cat got loose at a Blessing of Animals service and killed a little girl’s pet canary right there in the church. Ponting laughs as he recalled the miraculous plot line. “In the story the exasperated priest picks up the mortally challenged bird and, covering it with his palm, he says a prayer, and to his incredulous surprise, the bird is resurrected.”
That was fiction. At Grace Church, the annual service is a chance to say thanks to God for the very real special bond and love we have with our small, furry friends. Reverend Ponting indicated that the Blessing of Animals service will be an annual event at Grace Church
