RECTOR’S REFLECTION:  

The first law of our being is that we are set in a delicate network of interdependence with our fellow human beings and with the rest of God’s creation.
-              Archbishop Desmon Tutu (1931-2022)

It is very fitting to bless animals on or around the Feast of St. Francis.

He is remembered (among many, many other things), for his love of creation.  

It is perhaps my favourite thing about Francis of Assisi that he called all his fellow creatures his brothers and sisters – his family.

I bet this is why he was named the patron saint of ecology way back in 1979 – he looked at the world and saw the deeply relational and connected nature of creation and his embeddedness within it, reflecting the deeply relational and connected nature of God.

I think we experience this most with our pets. They are often just as much a part of our families as anyone else—we love them, we care for them, and we grieve them when they die.

So, it is good to pray for them, to bless them now, as they are so often a vehicle of blessing to us.
And I pray, as the Season of Creation ends, that the closeness that we so often feel with our pets begins to spread. That we begin to see the world with the eyes of our brother Francis, to see that we are intimately connected to our fellow creatures, that they are, that we are indeed family. 

Thanks be to God!

 

CG+