The Blessing of the Animals

Learning Activities of user
Submitted by - Nik • Submitted on  05 Nov 2008 09:11:17pm • Go to video page
Blessing of the Animals
  • Questions:
    1. Who was St. Francis of Assisi?
    2. Do you think it might be possible for you to give up your material belongings and live more simply in nature? Why or why not? What might you learn by living in nature that you do not know now?
    3. Why do you think it might be particularly important at this time in history to understand the importance of what St. Francis’ way of life?
    4. What is a “Blessing”? Do you give or receive blessings in your life? If so, when?
    5. How many animals are blessed each year at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine?
    6. St. Francis has become known as the Saint of Ecology. What does “Ecology” mean?
    7. What are some ecological issues that we need to help fix in the world today? What do you think it means to not only live off the earth but with the earth. Tell 2 things you can do to help out the earth, nature or animals?
  • Activities:

    1. In question #8, it asks what you might be able to do to make a positive difference on our earth. Make a plan to actually do something helpful for our planet and do it! (Like: start a recycling program, create an event to raise money to save something in nature, or write an article for your school’s newspaper to make other kids more aware of what they can do, maybe even help an animal shelter get some of their animals adopted. There’s so much you can do to help; be creative! It will make you feel good and help the world.) See Activity B’s website to find out what your whole class can do to get involved!

    2. If you want to learn more about helping our planet’s ecology, check out this great website: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/ (On this website you can find out more about ecology and how you can make a difference! There are also many great examples of how kids just like you have created class projects that help support our ecology.

    3. Choose an animal from the endangered species list to research. Find out what you might be able to do to help that species survive, and report back what you find out to your class.