At St. Barnabas Church in Lafayette, Louisiana, children were encouraged to bring along their stuffies for a special blessing in honor of St. Francis of Assisi's feast day.
In a delightful post on Instagram, Fr. Michael can be seen blessing the assortment of colorful toys that the children are eagerly holding up to be blessed. The children then came up individually to have their stuffed animal blessed, as well as themselves.
The service is definitely not your usual blessing, Although it's possible to have your home and your car blessed, you might wonder whether this stuffie blessing going a little too far. However, there are a number of reasons why we can't help but love the idea.
Unusual but beneficial!
First, a blessing brings about inner peace and security; the reassurance that God is busy protecting whatever is being blessed. This is something you would certainly want your children to feel.
While blessing the children themselves is normal and reassuring, by going that little bit further and blessing what they hold dear -- and what often brings them comfort -- the younger members of the congregation will feel that extra layer of security.
Secondly, the gesture also encourages children to view a blessing as something you seek for those people and things you love and care about. It's a practice that you're never to young to take up.
It's also important to consider that the service was in honor of a saint who died nearly 800 years ago. This helps to demonstrate how a man who lived in times that were so very different is still so relevant today, and his teachings can be adapted to modern times.
And finally, as one person commented, this is a particularly lovely idea for children who don't have a family pet. It allows them to acknowledge the importance of their very own stuffie, and who could disagree with that?!
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