Jesus is Lord

Allison from GEORGIA writes: "...I'm an event consultant in Atlanta and while setting up a wedding ceremony recently I saw this flier posted in a church hallway.  I love the picture of the crowd and the ceremonial arch at the bottom!  What the hell is that?!?  I was so excited that I stole a copy just to share with CWC fans.  I thought everyone would like to know that Jesus loves them, and apparently he also loves pets. (Only blessed ones, of course)."

Comments

[Vikki]

I live in Louisiana and there is a Catholic church in my city that does an annual "Blessing of the Pets" too. I'm not Catholic so I don't know if this is common or not. I think it had something to do with St. Francis.

[Candy]

I grew up in a Catholic family, and we also had pet blessings every year, because our church's patron saint was also St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals, and every year on his feast day (or for some churches, the closest Sunday) they hold pet blessings. I have to say normally I think this kind of stuff is weird and into CCL territory, even for really religious people, but at my church it was actually very sweet.

I'm not sure why this church is holding theirs so early, though, since his feast day is October 4th :)

[Candy]

P.S. I'm from Minnesota, and yes, this happens all over the country and perhaps in others as well.

[Ana Bananna]

alrighty then...

[Jacob]

that dog on the bottom left looks like he just wants to drink the holy water.

[Stetchnik]

I'm Catholic too but I've never had a pet blessed. A church nearby does it.

Seems a bit weird, but hey to each his own! XD

[DrunkBunny]

I'm like Candy - grew up Catholic and my parents still go to a church named after St. Francis. They have blessed pets every year, in honor of St. Francis. I think it's a lovely tradition, seeing as that I was taught in Catholic school that pets have no souls and can't go to heaven. But Catholics bless everything - houses, cars... so why not pets? It's a sweet thing. It's not like we expect our pets to speak in tongues after the mystical blessing. It's for luck really.

[Marylee]

So noone thought it odd that she STOLE a flyer from the CHURCH!?

[Jen]

Er--aren't flyers meant to be distributed? *shrugs*

This does happen in other countries. There's a couple of churches here in Ottawa that do this, and it's not unique to Catholicism. Just about any denomination that celebrates saints days is likely to have at least one church in a city that follows this tradition.

And I don't think any church I've ever been to would admit to doing anything for "luck". But that's just me.

[Damon]

My church does that too. I have a few pictures of my cat, Buster, being exorcised that I should send in.

[Sarah aka KB]

Drunkbunny - pets can't go to heaven? O_o I'm sure I saw a film with doggies going to heaven? Are you telling me it was all a lie?? Omg *sobs*.
Good job my cats are atheists. Actually they're not, they're polytheists, and both think that they're the Gods. And I'm sure they're right.

[yvienne]

Just wish I had a donkey... I could bring it along and say "Please, father, will you bless my ass ?".

Yeah, stupid, I know... :-p

[-M-]

Pets cannot go to heaven. But they WILL go straight to hell if they are not blessed, so get your pet blessed today!

[Shariys]

St. Francis of Assisi info:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/default.asp

I'm Lutheran and my church will be doing a pet blessing this year, on Oct. 4th ...

Stetchnik: Obviously the school you attended wasn't familiar with this:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jul2003/Feature2.asp

[jodysbumpin]

stealing is bad

[Courtney]

They're doing this at a church that I pass on my way to work.
The strangest part about it is that I was always taught in Catholic school that animals don't have souls.