Guess where I'm going today?

[Kym]

Guess where I'm going this morning? You'll never guess in a million guesses, ok may you might in a million guesses, but not in a thousand ... I'm going to a Pet Blessing Service at church! I can hear you saying "whaaaaat" from here! I went to a fund-raiser afternoon yesterday to do some poetry - yes I was the entertainment (sad huh) - and the lady who was the MC was a tall, slender, very funny lady and we got along really well. At the end of the function, she mentions the pet blessing service - cos it turns out she's the minister at the church on the hill just out of town. So my newest friend is a skinny Vicar of Dibley. Might go along and see if I can get a newspaper story out of it, or maybe even exaggerate the heck out of it and get a funny poem. At least then I'll be able to say I've been to a Pet Blessing Service. See ya later ...

[manfredvijars]

... go in peace Sister and don't step in the doo-doo ...

[Maureen K Clifford]

Blessing of pets is no more bizarre than blessing of the Fleet IMO. Pets are worthy recipients of a blessing although the ones at the service probably don't need it anywhere as much as some animals do but hopefully the prayers have a flow on effect through the universe.

If it gets the message across that animals are loved companions or considered by the church to be creatures of God then maybe some people might look more kindly upon them. It is a very Vicar of Dibley thing your new friend is doing - but I think accepted across the board as there was something similar here only a few weeks ago,

Have a great day

Cheers

Maureen

[Zondrae]

Morning all,

Just back from Church myself and read Kym's.. pet blessing or animal blessing is nothing new.

St France of Assisi is the patron Saint of animals. There is an order of priests who are Franciscans. You can recognise them from the brown robes and the sandals. I'm sure you will all be familiar with the style of 'dress' we associate with Frier Tuck of the Robin Hood movies. Also all those ceramic pieces (eg biscuit barrels and toby jugs) depicting the rotund monk, in brown, tied at the waist with a cord, are modeled on the Franciscan clergy. (funny, most of the Franciscans I have known have all been short and wide) They gave up the tonsure many years back but still wear the sandals and brown robe. Because they follow St Frances they regularly have pet blessings.


Note: tonsure and rotund.. today's effort at - less than commonly used words

[Maureen K Clifford]

also Frier - frier - flesh of a medium-sized young chicken suitable for frying
fryer, pullet chicken, poulet, volaille - the flesh of a chicken used for food - not to be mistaken for the bloke at the fish and chip shop who is a fryer or the Monk who is a Friar but possible also partial to being a fryer of friers which could explain the rotund appearance

Sorry Zondrae I think in a previous life I might have been an old fashioned schoolteacher who whacked kids for spelling errors and kept them in after school writing lines.

Cheers

Maureen

[Kym]

Well, it was all very lovely. Zondrae is right - on the Sunday closest to October 4th (or the one after if the are late), certain churchs celebrate St Francis Day.

It was outside of the church (obviously, can't take horses and cows inside, could get messy), and it was a church on the hill, surrounded by grass paddock, trees, sunshine and clean air, just how church should be, I reckon.

The minister lady holified the water, then flicked it on everyone, saying a nice little blessing prayer thinggy.

The animals that turned up were - one horse, one poddy calf, several dogs, one magpie in a cage, several photos of cats, and one frog. Yes, frog, well I'm frog-o-phobic, so I almost flipped over backwards and tripped on a chair to get away and the young girl laughed cos it was just a pretend one out of her mum's pond, but I thought it was real cos it was snuggled down under some grass clippings and she kept wetting it. I thought that was to keep it alive, but it was just to keep it looking alive!

For the people who didn't bring pets, the lovely minister lady had collected some rocks and scrubbed them, so whoever wanted to, could get a pet rock blessed, just so they didn't feel left out. Yes, yes, I did it, just for fun.

And when she was blessing the horse, he must have been thirsty cos he had a good old slurp out of the holy water dish. Luckily, none of the animals fought or ate each other. It was very nice.

As I drove down the dirt road to go home, there was a snake lying in the sun. Normally I would zig and zag to squish snakes, but after all the lovely talk about God's creatures, I actually zigged and zagged to avoid the little blighter. Church must have had an affect on me, I'm going soft!

[Zondrae]

Ha ha Maureen,

I didn't even think about the different types of fryers. Let us just call him a monk. At least I didn't stretch the joke and say the style was 'monk-ey'.

[Heather]

Did you get her to do a little blessing for our bunny rabbit Kym?

Our poor pet Snowy was taken by what I think was a cat on steroids two nights ago. Foxes often come an annoy the rabbit but the cage is pretty secure and the rabbit thumps away and the foxes give up. On this occassion the lid with two bricks was knocked off and poor bunny has gone. Sadly I heard the squeal and didn't realise it was her. Poor Snowy. One feral cat now in big trouble!

[Kym]

Oh dear, I didn't think of your bunny! But the minister spashed me with the magic water, and so I could mentally wish it over to your poor deceased bunny ... that's the best I can do, sorry.

[Heather]

I would be most grateful.... thank you. Poor Snowy... Mongrel cat...