Thursday, October 22, 2009

‘Pet blessing’ photo explained

HendrixPetBlessing

About a week ago I posted the photo over to the left as part of the famed Wordless Wednesday event.

I meant to post something the next day for Tell Me Thursday, but – didn’t. So I’m getting around to that now.

Frankly, the above photo is one of the better ones that’s been sent to my email address in some time. What’s going on? That was a photo from last year’s pet blessing at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. (my alma mater).

Now, Hendrix is a Methodist school and it turns out that a lot of churches subscribing to that denomination tend to hold pet blessings annually. The one at Hendrix was cancelled this year due to rain, but it’s great to see that the pup in the photo above appreciated the one last year and gave the college chaplain a little love. The chaplain appears to be a good sport about it all, so kudos to him.

We supposed to take our three-legged dog, Bella, to a Methodist church here in Benton we’ve been attending last week so she could get good and blessed. We missed that event, however, as it was on a Saturday and weekends here tend to get a bit nuts (this past weekend was busier than usual as my wife’s family was in town).

I asked my wife if a freshly-blessed Bella would suddenly have a functioning fourth leg like all the other dogs. I was told such a miraculous event was unlikely and my wife practically called me a heretic for suggesting such a thing.

I keep that wife of mine on her toes, see?

At any rate, I do believe the pet blessing is a nifty little practice and was pleased to hear that Catholics do it, too. It only makes sense that we Methodists would follow suit for what is the Methodist faith but Catholic Lite (most of the ceremony, none of the guilt)?

I’m sure we’ll take Bella to a pet blessing next year. Hopefully she’ll be as appreciative as the dog in the photo.

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