The Reason for This Season

"All things of creation are children of the Father and thus brothers of man. ... God wants us to help animals, if they need help. Every creature in distress has the same right to be protected." ~ Francis of Assisi

The feast day for St. Francis of Assisi falls on each year on October the 4th, very near to the date of the Canadian Thanksgiving. Somewhere in the the midst of Harvest celebrations and the Thanksgiving feast the Anglican Church [and some others] have a service called "The Blessing of the Animals". Parishioners are urged to bring their pets to church to have them blessed by the clergy.

Quite frankly this has always seemed to me to be a ‘nice’ but meaningless service, one that I never had the slightest desire to bring any of our pets to. Why would I expose them to the potential trauma that would come with being in close proximity to larger, more aggressive creatures, some of whom were their natural enemies? I could never understand the reasoning. This year as I looked at the pictures posted on the church’s FB page, something changed. The dogs were so cute that I wondered why we only allowed them in the church once a year…. After all they are God’s creatures too and we even share some of our DNA with them.

Those churches that talk of being inclusive are really only inclusive of other humans, of those, who while they might looks different or act differently, still share 100% of our DNA. But we exclude those who’re slightly different even though we are all creatures living on the same planet. Perhaps this is what this service has been suppose to remind us of all along, and that I have completely missed.

"God requires that we assist the animals, when they need our help. Each being (human or creature) has the same right of protection." ~ Francis of Assisi

But it goes deeper that that. Do the various seasons and special days that have been celebrated by the church over the last 2000 year actually have purpose beyond organizing the year and re-telling the story over and over? Is there a deeper lesson there, one that goes right to the core of our existence, to our very survival on this earth?

These seasons and days remind us of the importance of love, of sharing, of justice, of compassion, of the fact that our fates are intertwined, that we are reliant on each other for our very survival. The plants, the air we breathe, the animals, the others in the world who look different, have different ideologies, different languages, different religions, none of them can exist without the other. We need to learn this lesson, and learn it quickly in order to heal this planet, our island home.

"Ask the beasts and they will teach you the beauty of this earth." ~ Francis of Assisi

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