LOGAN – St. John’s Episcopal Church is welcoming members of the community to join them in Blessing of the Animals on Saturday.
Blessing of the Animals is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi who “had such a part of his spirituality…about nature and God’s creatures, and was known to spend time in nature and with animals. And so he’s kind of seen as a Patron of those who loves animals, as well as animals themselves,” said Jason Samuel, who is a priest at St. John’s Episcopal church.
Father Samuel says Blessing of the Animals will be in the doors of the church and all types of animals are welcome.
He says he has blessed Dogs, cats, and “Guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, rats, hamsters, from frogs, geckos and types of lizards, and then we get reptiles, you know, I’ve had iguanas, we’ve had turtles, we’ve had tortoises, we’ve had snakes, we’ve had spiders. We have had rabbits.”
Father Samuel will ask anyone, who is comfortable, who would like their animal to be blessed to walk up in a single filled line and Father Samuel will reach his hand out or touch the animal and say a blessing over the animal.
He says not everyone has to walk up and receive a blessing for their animals, people who are more comfortable to sit with their animals will also receive a blessing.
“We offer this kind of blessing prayer, and for those who remain kind of seated, we just say, you know, we hope that you receive this blessing as well.”
St. John’s Episcopal Church has done Blessing of the Animals for five years and each year they have done donations to local rescue centers. This year they encourage people to bring Science Diet food, whether it’s dry or wet food. For those who are unable to bring science diet food, there will also be a donation jar.
“We encourage you to bring a bag or a can or whatever, something of some science diet. And so all this food we collect, we then bring and donate so they’re not having to spend their funds on all this food. And then, also, we do put out a donation jar.”
The donation jar and food will be donated to Cache Humane Society.
Blessing of the Animals will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, Oct. 4th at one o’clock in the afternoon.