There were some furry friends in the aisles of Mary Immaculate in Waverley earlier this month alongside the human parishioners, reports The Catholic Weekly.

Creatures big and small came along with their owners for a blessing from parish priest Fr Bernie Thomas OFM at the 9:15am Mass, for the feast of St Francis of Assisi.

*Fr Bernie Thomas OFM blessing the animals. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography/The Catholic Weekly*

Boston the Rhodesian Ridgeback took up his fair share of space in the pew, Rio the Boston Terrier sat quietly while Gigi the poodle stared up at the Seven Franciscan Joys of Our Lady mural.

At the end of the Liturgy pets and their owners made their way, species by species coming forward and surrounding the Franciscan priest like an icon of St Francis.

Younger parishioners without pets didn’t miss out, with stuffed companions getting a sprinkling of holy water instead, the most popular a giant stuffed giraffe galloping down the aisle.

“Some people think ‘what?’ But this is what our Franciscan spirituality is all about,” Fr Bernie said.

The annual pet blessing at the mother church of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor honours Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment.

The initiative is also in line with Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si on the ecological crisis and “care for our common home.”

Over at St Joan of Arc in Haberfield, Fr Thomas Kurunthanam also welcomed parishioners’ pets for the annual blessing.

He said the care for animals is close to the human heart from its origins in the creation story.

“God asks us to be custodians of all creation,” he said.

“When Francis of Assisi expressed his faith in the spiritual things, he was very different to his contemporaries at a time when spirituality and experiences of God were spoken more on a philosophical level.

“He preached with the animals, wrote hymns about nature, and approached his good work from the heart, which might be an approach we could all learn from still today.”

This article by George Al-Akiki was published in The Catholic Weekly, the publication of th Archdiocese of Sydney.