Sai Kung’s laughing priest Raja Duggimpudi will bless pets at Sacred Heart Church at 5:15 pm on 25 October. You don’t need to be a parishioner to attend with your animal, you don’t even need to be Catholic; anyone may turn up at the church’s forecourt and the good father, who laughs a lot, happy in his ministry, will say prayers for your pet and sprinkle holy water over it.
SAI KUNG BUZZ hopes Father Raja will take a little time to go down to the waterfront and bless our five bulls.
The event on 25 October honours St Francis of Assisi (1181 — 1226) who was one of the first people to speak up for animals, urging people to treat them kindly. St Francis called all creatures his brothers and sisters. He was born Giovanni di Petro di Bernadone to a wealthy family. After a spiritual vision, he renounced his wealth and became a mystic, poet and preacher. He founded the Order of Friars Minor and co-founded the Order of Poor Clares.
St Francis experienced the first known case of stigmata: marks looking like nails appeared on his hands and feet and a deep wound appeared in his right side as if from a spear thrust — this stigmata was similar to Crucifixion wounds of Jesus. St Francis is the patron saint of animals and of the environment. If you wish to pay homage to him you may visit his Basilica in Italy or simply pray to one of the greatest saints.
St Francis of Assisi: “For it is in giving that we receive.”
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