On Sunday,October 3rd, hundreds of people attended mass with their pets in Nice, France. They celebrated the memory of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecologists.

Peace Prayer of St.Francis

Lord make me an instrument
of your peace;
where there is hatred
let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood,
as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving
that we receive,
it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.

Thank you for sharing this. What a nice idea, and what a cute cat.

I wish Lilie and Ollie could attend something like that to create a bit more peace.

Thank you Inda.
What a cute cat.
I never knew that there were services with animals.This is nice.

The prayer is beautiful.

Love
Vicky

This is really nice.

They had a service for the animals here in Toronto as well.

Gisele

Dear Inda, thank you so much for this post. Btw the cat in the picture of the church looks very much like Zelda ...

Sue, what a lovely lovely picture of your cats!

And thank you Inda for sharing the peace prayer. I had a long talk with my son Francesco who is named after St. Francis (my husband too). He loves the animals also very much and enjoys this aspect of St. Francis, but he said that St. Francis was an outstanding Saint on many levels and that the stressing of his love for animals should in no way diminish the cosmic vastness of his spirit, the innovation he brought about in the catholic church. He was the true disciple of Christ.



St. Francis preaching to the birds by GIOTTO


I think the admission of pets into the church is in line with St. Francis' spirit. Aren't we all divine creatures?

Sending much love and wishing a beautiful week-end to all of you dear friends.


Margherita ... and Zelda

Oh my! I did not suspect that Zelda's picture would come out that huge!

Sorry .... I must find some other picture of St. Francis ...

I think here there you can find some beautiful information about St. Francis:

[URL=landru.i-link-2.net/ shnyves/St._Francis.html]More about St. Francis[/URL]

The Statue of St. Francis with live doves at the Porziuncola/Assisi:





Love, Margherita

Dear Margherita,
Thank you for sharing the information and beautiful images.

Zelda is beautiful and wants to be bigger than all the rest

Sending love to all pets

Inda

October 2009

All animals eventually go to heaven.
************************************

quote:

Peace Prayer of St.Francis

Lord make me an instrument
of your peace;
where there is hatred
let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood,
as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving
that we receive,
it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.

Thank you for remembering to bring back this prayer for the animals.
For sure, all animals will eventually meet in heaven.

Love,
vicky