Blessing of the Animals Resources

This year St. Francis Day is Saturday, October 4, 2008. The following page is a list of helpful links, ideas and communication suggestions for churches to provide and promote St. Francis Day Pet Blessing Service and additional animal resources. Do you have helpful information to add or pictures from your St. Francis Day Celebration? Contact Kelly Harris.

Links & Liturgies:

• Flyer for Pet Blessing Service (Word doc - fill in church, name, location etc)
RSPCA Blessing of the Animals liturgy [Adobe PDF]
ENAW Blessing of the Animals liturgy [Word doc]
Liturgy for the Burial of a Pet [Word doc]

Ideas & Suggestions:

• Gifts, community involvement & communication ideas

Books:

• Visit Viva Bookstore in San Antonio or online and search books about St. Francis, pet blessings and the loss of pet for families and children. Vival also has pet medals.  http://vivabooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
  • Saint Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy by Robert Francis Kennedy
  • The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis by Paul Sabatier, Jon M. Sweeney.
  • Missing Maggie: The Death of a Pet by Connie S. Owens
  • The Day Scooter Died: A book about the death of a pet by Kathleen Long Bostrom, Diana Amadeo and Chris Auer
  • All God's Creatures: The Blessing of Animal Companions by Debra K. Farrington

Prayers:

--From The Liturgy of the Liberal Catholic Church (London: St Alban Press.) Almighty and Merciful Father, whose care and loving kindness are over all thy creation, breathe forth into us thy spirit of compassion and tenderness towards all creatures thou hast made and in whom thou are the indwelling life. Teach us, O Lord, to look upon our younger brethren as a trust from thee, that the day may be hastened when men shall neither hurt nor destroy in all thy holy mountain; through Christ our Lord.
  
--George Appleton in The Oxford Book of Prayer, Oxford University Press, 1985.  O God, I thank thee
for all the creatures thou has made,
so perfect in their kind--
great animals like the elephant and the rhinoceros,
humorous animals like the camel and the monkey,
friendly ones like the dog and the cat,
working ones like the horse and the ox,
timid ones like the squirrel and the rabbit,
majestic ones like the lion and the tiger,
for birds with their songs.O Lord give us such love for thy creation,
that love may cast out fear,
and all they creatures see in man
their priest and friend,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.     

Prayer of St. Basil
O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, for
our brothers and sisters, the inarticulate beasts, to whom Thou gave the
earth as their home in common with us. We remember with shame that in the
past we have exercised the high dominion of humanity with ruthless cruelty
so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song
has become a groan of anguish and a cry of torment. May we realize that they
live not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee, and that
they too love the sweetness of life. Amen.