On Sunday, October 3, we had a Blessing of the Animals as part of our 10:00 service. Here are some pictures:

Figaro wanting to join the procession

That's "Prada" in the cage

The full gallery is available here:

To be honest, I decided to do the Blessing at the main Sunday service on the spur of the moment. I’ve usually done it on Saturdays or on the weekday, wherever the Feast of St. Francis falls. And I was regretting my decision when I woke up at 3:00 am on Sunday morning catastrophizing all of the possible things that could go wrong–from no one bringing their pets to the prospect of total chaos breaking out.

In the end, it went very well. The pets were very well behaved as were the people who accompanied them. We had a great time. Several people remarked on how wonderful the service was, so I suppose we’ll be doing this regularly from here on out.