This coming Saturday, Oct. 7, has a couple of
interesting things going on. First of all, we will have the annual BLESSING OF
ANIMALS in the morning. Wednesday, Oct 4. is the actual feast of St. Francis of
Assisi, but we always do this blessing on the Saturday closest to his feast. We
get dogs and cats, and occasionally a guinea pig or a mouse. We have had police
dogs, and even in the distant past a horse - or so I am told. It is a wonderful
celebration, and I encourage all those with pets to come, and even if you do
not have a pet you are most welcome to pray with us.
Having recently completed a book discussion group on a
book by Sr. Joan Chittister, “Two Dogs
and a Parrot” subtitled “What Our Animal Friends Can Teach Us About Life,”
I think this year’s blessing of pets will be more meaningful for me. Our four
weeks of discussion about pets, and what the participants have received from
their pets, and what they have learned about themselves and about life from
their pets, will make this year’s blessing of pets a richer and more
significant experience for me. God uses His creation, and especially the
animals in our lives, to instruct us and help us experience positive instances
of loyalty, of trust, of being needed, and especially the joy of companionship.
So, I invite you to join us next Saturday for the Blessing of Animals. There
are details elsewhere in this bulletin and on our parish website,
www.staustin.org.
Next Saturday is also the Feast of Our Lady of the
Rosary. This is historically an interesting feast, established by Pope Pius V
in 1571 to commemorate a great naval victory of the Christian forces under Don
Juan of Austria over the Ottoman (Muslim) naval forces that were planning to
invade Europe. The Ottomans greatly outnumbered the Christians in men and in
ships, but the Venetians had a secret weapon, a new kind of ship that basically
was a gun platform. Thus, the Christians out-gunned the Turks and shot them to
pieces. It was a terrible slaughter and something like 50,000 people lost their
lives that day, with the Christians losing 17 ships and the Ottomans 137. It
was a great victory for the Christians. Anyway, in the lead-up to the battle,
Pope I had urged people all over Europe to pray the rosary to save Europe from
the Muslim invasion. The Pope then attributed the surprising and overwhelming
victory to the intercession of Mary, and established this Feast on the
anniversary of the battle.
Today we are unlikely to ask Mary’s help in conquering
and slaughtering our enemies, though as a child in Catholic grade school we all
prayed to Mary for the conversion of Russia. At least we had moved far enough
to not want to kill our enemies but to convert them. Now we need to move
further to learn how to live together on this one planet we have in mutual
respect and harmony. Having just spent two weeks in a Muslim country (Morocco),
I was impressed and grateful for their kind hospitality and welcome. I was also
impressed by the public way they live out their religion in daily prayer. Their
commitment to religious observance puts me to shame. Perhaps we make our
religion too private and individual in the West, to the point of making it
totally hidden and secret. In any case, there is plenty to contemplate this
coming Saturday. It is good to reflect on all these things.
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