Small blessings

It seems like forever since I have wanted to participate in my small college on the hill's parish house's Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day. This is my fourth year here and I remember wanting to do this four years ago but reminding myself that Rusty would likely bite the hand of the chaplain and Geni would be so freaked out that the blessing would actually be counterproductive.

This year, however, I have Lizzy, who is friendly and mostly accommodating and, while she hates traveling in the car and will invariably puke (I now have pads and seat covers designed to avert major clean up of car upholstery), definitely is in need of a blessing given that she'll eat first and ask questions later, which I very much fear may end up being the cause of her untimely demise.

Thus, my husband and I packed her up after I had gone into campus briefly to meet an advisee's mother and grandmother, and we drove back to the chapel where the blessing was getting ready to begin. St. Francis is one of my favorite saints, and I have prayed to him for Rusty and Geni and now for Lizzy (as well as for my cats, of course), so I thought it was important that we finally do this and so there we were, with Lizzy, among a not-small group of cats and dogs.

Lizzy soon found a friend, Chester, the black poodle, who is owned by the parish chaplain and she and he romped around on their leashes for a while, happily. I'm thinking of e-mailing him to see if we can meet up at the dog park some day so the two dogs can play together since they really seemed to hit it off nicely. They're both almost the same weight and I think that puts Lizzy at ease since she tends to get anxious around bigger dogs.

Finally, the moment of the blessing came and Lizzy, while she did not sit on command, did do her "down" well and that worked and she received her blessing with all her goofy grace.

Because I love this prayer and believe these are good precepts to aim for and live by, I'd like to share it here on his day.

The Prayer of St. Francis

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.