{"id":7425,"date":"2025-09-15T21:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/?p=7425"},"modified":"2025-10-05T05:56:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T05:56:44","slug":"blessing-of-the-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/2025\/09\/15\/blessing-of-the-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessing of the Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h2>Blessing of the Animals<\/h2>\n<p><img class=\"wp-image-7418 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-66x66.png 66w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-400x400.png 400w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-800x800.png 800w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/files\/2025\/09\/Blessing-of-the-Pets-TILE.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In celebration of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, Saint Matthew invites all parishioners and friends to bring their beloved pets for a <strong data-start=\"274\" data-end=\"301\">Blessing of the Animals<\/strong> on <strong data-start=\"305\" data-end=\"364\">Saturday, October 4, at 10 a.m. in the parish courtyard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"369\" data-end=\"590\">This special tradition is a beautiful way to give thanks to God for the gift of creation and for the joy our pets bring to our lives. Whether furry, feathered, or scaled, all creatures are welcome to receive a blessing.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"592\" data-end=\"810\">Please ensure that all pets are safely restrained on a leash or in a secure carrier. We look forward to gathering together as a parish family to celebrate God\u2019s creation and ask His blessing on our animal companions.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[542,543,541,540],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7427,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7425\/revisions\/7427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmatthewtn.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}