Blessing of the Animals

This year's Blessing of the Animals occurred after the Feast of St. Francis.  As usual, we began by leading a couple verses of All Creatures of Our God and King out in front of the church main entrance.  Fr. Jose enthusiastically greet pets and owners and then went around to each animal to bestow an individual blessing.  Our fraternity manned a table with people and pet treats including munchkins and apple cider.  It was wonderful that several of our fraternity members were there as well.  With the beautiful early fall afternoon, all seemed to enjoy the experience.

We're singing!

Pets get blessed while we man the goodies table.

Pets and people lined up for individual blessings.

Our fraternity in attendance.

There's plenty of room on the grass, too, before getting a chance to head into the church.

Everybody gets a treat. 

The felines kept out of harms' way (i.e., the dogs).

It's nice to make our presence known o the parish.