On Oct. 5, 2008 St. Clare's celebrated the great gift of God to mankind with the blessing of animals.  This annual celebration occurs in many denominations and in many faiths around the world at the time each year when the Christian world celebrates the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and of the environment.  We invited our animal pets into the church for the Mass, then had a special prayer of thanksgiving for the ones that died or could not be there.  There were lots of healthy "barks" that we interpreted as "amen," interspersed through Fr. Pete's sermon!