Paws in the Liturgy

Iris was having trouble in church at the 8am mass this morning. As others have found before her, the wooden floor is a bit slippery: her feet were sliding all over the place and at times it looked as though she was going to fall over completely. Derek and Cyn who brought her virtually had to drag her to the altar rail, though not so forcibly she showed any signs of being unhappy about it.

I am, of course, toying with you: Iris is a dog, and more than that, a guide dog for the blind, or at least she will be. Derek and Cyn have looked after a string of trainee guide dogs, and the time had come for them to relinquish Iris and send her on to the next stage in her preparation. They'd brought their previous dog to church to be blessed before sending him on, though I'd forgotten entirely about that. Derek asked whether I'd do the same for Iris, and I'd forgotten I'd said yes to that, too. 

'May the Lord Jesus, who is present with us now, give you grace,' I said. 'May God equip you with all you need for your work, give you diligence and love, and may those you will work with be blessed through you. And the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest on you now and always.' Iris keenly followed my hand as I made the sign of the Cross with the Host, presumably because she thought it was a biscuit.

It was more attention than the human beings at the 8am usually get. It's just as well Iris has more training to do, as at the moment she would be likely to drag her attendant human through hedges and ditches, were she able to get more purchase on the ground than she got in church.