"All creatures of our God and King, Lift up your voice and with us sing: Alleluia!"

Alleluia! Praise to God indeed! The words above were written by none other than the great saint, Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is today, October 4. I'll get back to him shortly!

This is the time of year when, more than ever, we sing praises, thanking God for his bounty and goodness to us. Since earliest times, harvest has been a time of celebration and thanksgiving. "All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin." On this Sunday past, our church, St. Mark's was decked out in harvest glory, fruits, vegetables, grain in every corner, and on every window ledge.

There is a wonderful scent in the air of a church on harvest Sunday that always brings back memories of harvests past, going back to childhood days. That itself is something to give thanks for, but of course, it's a lot more than that. As people have done since time immemorial, we gather to thank God for the harvest, for the food that will sustain us throughout the year, for the farmers who have toiled to ensure that we will have that food.

Thanking God is something that I fear is sometimes forgotten. We are pretty good with our prayers of intercession, but saying thanks? I remember some years back being with a clergy group, and in prayer, there were many good and earnest intercessions about important concerns, but when asked about things for which to give thanks, there was an embarrassing silence!

Giving thanks to God should be so easy, as there are so many reasons to give praise and thanks. This season provides us with some important ones.

This weekend is a shining example, National Thanksgiving. Now, listening to the news, watching it on TV or reading the paper, can give a person a pretty jaded outlook, with all the negative stuff, the death-toll of our soldiers in Afghanistan, complaints about healthcare, crime on the streets, taxes, and so on. But, call me a cock-eyed optimist, a blind patriot, whatever, but I think we have a great deal to be thankful for in this country of ours, and as we pray about those things that concern us, we need to give thanks for this wide and beautiful land of ours, and the freedom we have to enjoy it.

We'll be giving thanks in our churches this coming Sunday. We need to remember to do so also in our own private prayers.

This past Sunday afternoon, we had a different kind of thanksgiving in our church. I'm not at all sure when and how the custom began, but now, in many churches, usually on a Sunday close to the feast day of St. Francis, we have a blessing of anim als. Some folks find this a very strange custom, but I confess that I love it.

Our church resounded with the voices of many dogs, creatures great and small. The cats in attendance were rather quiet! Once the little service began, and we were singing, "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee", the dogs did quiet down some, and we were able to hear a Bible reading, and we said prayers for animals, for people who care for animals, and we gave thanks for the love and loyalty of all those creatures who live with us, making our lives special by their very presence. And each animal was given a blessing, even my own naughty little West Highland terrier who represented all my other beasties, two cats and three birds!

Why is this special thanksgiving done near the feast day of St. Francis?

There are many stories and legends about this saint, but among those we always hear about his love of animals, how he preached to birds, and how his gentleness was so apparent that even wild animals, wolves, trusted and approached him. And so Francis became a kind of unofficial patron saint of animals. They couldn't have a better one!

So much to be thankful for at this time, harvest, our great country, our animals! Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!