Blessing of Pets

Meet Q the cat

Yesterday was the Feast Day of St. Francis.  Over the years, it's become popular for religious organizations to hold a "blessing of pets" or "blessing of animals" in the days before or after October 4 (see below if you wonder why).  Although we don't offer an opportunity to gather and bless your pets here at St. Mark, you can do a brief, and meaningful, pet blessing ritual at home.

Before the blessing, you'll want to decide whether you want to include singing or not.  Some great songs include Canticle of the Son (aka All Creatures of our God and King) of Prayer of St. Francis (aka Make Me a Channel of your Peace).  Another question: indoor or outdoor?  If you have an indoor only pet, the answer is obvious, but if your pet is both, then outdoor might be the way to go.

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Words to Say
Published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, you can find the blessing text and ritual here.  You can modify the prayer for your family (eg: if you have little ones, they might benefit from hearing the creation story for a children's Bible).  If you want music, you can sing before the opening lines, at the end, or both.

These words may be used during the intercessions to bless specific pets:

N. (name of animal, eg: "Q") may you be blessed in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May you and N. (owner's name) enjoy life together and find joy with the God who created you.

Prep/Follow Up
Help your children understand our blessing of animals.  Either before or after, talk to them about the importance of caring for creation, how God gave Adam and Eve (and all of humanity) the gift of creation.  Like any gift from God, we need to take care of the world and be good stewards.  One way to do that is to offer our gifts back to God.  When we bless our pets, we do just that, asking God to bless the creation that He made, and thanking God for making such wonderful companions.

For more information on why we bless pets, read this article from a Franciscan.

Yes, Q is my cat.