Blessing of the Animals 2024

Today the church celebrated the Feast of St. Francis (the official Feast day is October 4th), who many regard as the greatest post-Biblical saint in the history of Christianity.

St. Francis turned his back on his family's wealth in favor of a lifetime of poverty and service. He is the patron saint of animals and the environment.

Pets and their owners came forward to be blessed at the altar. This afternoon, as we have for the past 20 years (interrupted by COVID in 2020 and 2021), the church set up a table at the Foster City Dog Park to say a prayer for pets and owners who came forward.

Included in St. Francis' legacy is the composing of the second most-recognized prayer in Christendom:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury,pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen