A to Z Guide to Happiness

Two cute dogs, Bella the Westie and Ollie the Papillon, show you how to be happy and bring happiness wherever you are, by following their paw steps with their friends and family.
You will see them having fun, relaxing, following their dreams and giving all their love. They will give you tips on finding and spreading happiness and inspirational quotations.

Read Pascal Inard's full bibliography here with list of all published and forthcoming work.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Blessed are all animals

On Sunday, there was a festival of St francis of Assisi, with a blessing of the pets at St Matthew's church and we went there and saw lots of other doggies; all the humans wanted to pat us !



It was wonderful; the humans sang some lovely songs and the doggies joined in; then the vicar blessed all the animals :
 Blessing of the pets
"Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. On the fifth and sixth days of creation, you called forth fish in the sea, birds to the air, and animals on the land. You inspired Francis of Assisi to call all animals his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless these animals, and by the power of your love, enable them to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures. Amen."




A lady gave us a medallion and a card of St Francis that had been blessed during the ceremony.



The story of St Francis :
St Francis was a lover of animals; in his city of Gubbio in Italy, there was a ferocious wolf who terrorised everyone. He blessed him and he said "Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts...All these people accuse you and curse you... But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people". Then Francis led the wolf into the town and made a pact between the wolf and the people and also on behalf of the town dogs, that they would not bother the wolf again.  

Card of St Francis blessed by the vicar




Mum is recovering well from her operation; thank you to all our friends who sent their wishes, she was very touched.
Dad worked from home to look after Mum, and he had a meeting with his colleagues which he joined by teleconference; meanwhile Ollie and I were fooling around a bit noisily in the same room, and Dad's colleagues heard us and laughed ! So we are honoured to have been able to participate in Dad's work and especially to have livened up this meeting  (it sounded a bit boring anyway...)


Dad, please take us to your work, we promise we'll be good !




For it is in giving that we receive.
St Francis of Assisi

16 comments:

Scooter said...

Bella,
Sounds like fun being there with all the other doggies. And bout making dads fellow workers smile and laugh, well...WAY TO GO!! A job well done you two!!

wags
Jazzi

Deborah said...

That was a nice post! We went last year to the blessings of the pets but this year it was my mother's and step dad's 80th birthday party!
Happy Monday!
xxoo
Deborah

houndstooth said...

I love going to work with Mom! I don't get to go all the time, but when I do, it's great fun.

I'm glad to hear your mom is recovering well!

Bunny

K9 Katastrophie said...

OOO! Thank you for sharing the story of St. Francis!!!

Licks,
Ruthie

Anonymous said...

Oh that was so very interesting!

Thanks for sharing!

woo woos, Tessa

jen said...

Great post!!
What a special day:)

Molly the Airedale said...

It sounds like you guys spiced up your dad's phone meeting!
We're glad to hear that your mom is healing!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a most luvly day you had! I luved hearing the story of St. Francis!

And guess what? My dad works from home and sometimes me and Brudder Ranger have to pawticipate in HIS work calls, too! I know he appreciates that a lot!

Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie

Patrice said...

Glad to hear Mom's doing well. Best wishes to her! I love the idea of blessing pets who bless us with their presence in our lives. I have always loved hearing of St. Francis. I have seen many great statues of him.

Oskar said...

I would like to be blessed at a ceremony someday, but this reminds me that we are all blessed because we have our forever homes!

I'm glad that your mom is doing OK & I hope you get to help your dad work again soon.

Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar

ocmist said...

This was very interesting to read. We saw on the TV that they had one of those in a big town near here, but we didn't go. Grammy didn't know about it before hand and she prays for us all the time anyway, so she said God is looking out for us. She liked finding out more about it and reading the prayer, too, though because she'd heard a little, but didn't know very much.

We are also very glad to hear that your Mom is doing better, and Grammy is praying for her, too. We are so glad that your Dad's work lets him stay with her, too. We know that you are giving her lots of love and attention and that's always a good kind of medicine! The CCC

Two French Bulldogs said...

so cool to have all the kids blessed. What a special day
Benny & Lily

bichonpawz said...

The blessing of the animals is a very special day! We are glad to hear that you were able to participate. We are also glad to hear that your mom is doing well. xoxo Chloe and LadyBug

Flo de Sendai said...

Ca a du etre une bien jolie ceremonie !
Ma Nana a aussi accrochee a son collier une petite medaille religieuse venant des USA...(je n'en ai qu'une, donc pour mon ainee Nana)

Quant a moi, voila, je suis de retour au Japon, et ai des milliers de trucs en retard, mais tout se fera ! ;0))

Bisous affectueux a toute la famille !

the magic sleigh said...

Wooos Beawootiful Bella! I hope woo all had fun at Dads work, but I really hope woo stay with Mom and snuggle with her to make her feel better.
May woo be furever blessed, I was blessed too!
~husky kisses~
-Kira The BeaWootiful

Unknown said...

Oh- we used to have a Blessing of the Animals too back in Auckland! I went one year and it was great fun!

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

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