{"id":14792,"date":"2026-10-06T14:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=14792"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:59:15","slug":"blessing-the-auggie-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2026\/10\/06\/blessing-the-auggie-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessing the Auggie animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cI know you\u2019re not supposed to have favorite chapel services, but this one ranks up there,\u201d University Pastor <\/span>Babette Chatman<\/b> said from the front of Hoversten Chapel, smiling at Augsburg community members and their pets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blessing of the Animals is an annual chapel service in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. In remembrance of his love for all sentient beings, individuals around the world bring their animal companions to church for a Blessing of the Animals for St. Francis Day on October 4. Augsburg Campus Ministry provided that same opportunity for Auggies on Friday, October 2. Some community members submitted photos of their pets that played on a slideshow throughout the service. Others brought their creatures to campus for an in-person blessing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

University Pastors <\/span>John Schwehn<\/b> and Chatman presented a litany interspersed with the audience singing \u201cAll God\u2019s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.\u201d Schwehn then presented a sermon, sharing how a kitten found in his backyard last year became an integral part of their family. He described how everyone in that chapel was connected\u2014not because they were all part of the Augsburg community, or because they were all Christian, or because they were all even the same species. He said all pets and people were connected because they were created by God in the image of love, as St. Francis deeply believed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chatman and Schwehn then traveled between rows of seats to greet every animal. They blessed them by placing their hands onto each furry creature and offering a benediction over them. For those who couldn\u2019t bring their animals in person, they offered a blessing over a shared image.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The service ended with this closing prayer:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBless them who will never be entirely tamed and so remind us that you love what is wild, that you rejoice in what lives close to the earth, that your heart beats in the heart of these creatures you have entrusted to our care.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_images_carousel images=”14805,14806,14797,14798,14799,14800,14801,14802,14803,14804″ img_size=”large” autoplay=”yes” hide_pagination_control=”yes” title=”2026 Blessing of the Animals”][vc_column_text]Photos by Douachee Lee and Darcia Cole<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cI know you\u2019re not supposed to have favorite chapel services, but this one ranks up there,\u201d University Pastor Babette Chatman said from the front of Hoversten Chapel, smiling at Augsburg community members and their pets.\u00a0 Blessing of the Animals is an annual chapel service in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":569,"featured_media":14793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[275,274,96],"class_list":["post-14792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-the-quad","tag-animals","tag-chapel","tag-faith"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/569"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14792"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14807,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792\/revisions\/14807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}