By Lizsandra Trastoy - Florida Catholic Newspaper
Photographer: LIZSANDRA TRASTOY | FC
Pet owners read a prayer, along with their furry companions, before the blessing of the animals, held outside of St. Martha Parish Hall.
Photographer: LIZSANDRA TRASTOY | FC
Pets and their owners await their blessing for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The blessing took place in the parking lot of the parish hall of St. Martha Church.
Photographer: LIZSANDRA TRASTOY | FC
A pet owner takes a selfie before the start of the blessing outside of St. Martha's parish hall.
MIAMI | To mark the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, several parishes in Miami Dade and Broward counties hosted a blessing for pets Oct. 3.
One of the blessings took place outside St. Martha Parish Hall, where about 25 pets — all dogs plus one furry feline — took part in a liturgical service featuring songs and prayers. They also received a special individual blessing from Father Wilfredo Contreras, St. Martha’s pastor.
This is the seventh year the parish’s centering prayer group has organized the event.
The reading for the day came from the book of Genesis 1:20: “Then God said: Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: tame animals, crawling things, and every kind of wild animal. And so it happened.”
“When (pets) die, it hurts,” Father Contreras said, recalling how he lost his “best friend,” Penny, years ago.
Since then, he said, he has not owned another pet, but lives out his love of animals by hearing the stories of other owners and their furry friends.
“You grow to love these pets, just as you love your best friends,” Father Contreras said.
“I enjoy their companionship, they teach me a lot,” agreed Erika Brown, a member of a local Baptist church who found out about the pet blessing from a Catholic friend.
A professional dog sitter, she attended this year’s blessing with Oscar, a 5-year-old French bulldog, and his other canine friend, Piper.
“You come home after a long day, and they show you happiness,” said Brown, who does not own any pets herself but still loves them and thought it important to bless them.
“They can teach you so much about unconditional love and what is really important in life,” she said, sharing a life lesson she has learned from the pets she cares for: “When something bad happens in life, do what a dog does — kick some grass over it and keep moving on.”
Silvana Converti attended with Susuu, her 3-year-old canine companion.
“We couldn’t make it to last year’s event, but I’m glad we came,” said Converti, a parishioner and choir member at St. Martha.
After his talk, Father Contreras prayed an Our Father, followed by a blessing prayer in which he mentioned “give us the grace to see all animals as gifts from you, and to treat them with respect, for they are your creation.”
The event concluded with Father Contreras blessing each pet and each owner individually with holy water.
“I loved the event of the blessing, since Father Wilfredo not only blessed my pet, but also personally blessed me,” said Converti.
Photographer: LIZSANDRA TRASTOY | FC
Father Wilfredo Contreras, St. Martha's pastor, pets some of his parishioners' furry friends before blessing them.
