A huge welcome back, Padre.
Do you have a blessing of the boats, as we have in MD and, I believe, some places in New England? Usually, it's for workboats, not pleasure yachts.
Also around this season, there used to be the annual blessing of the hounds, which took place at a very picturesque Episcopal church in the horse-farm country just north of Baltimore, the members of the [fox] hunt dressed in their pinks, mounted on their horses, the rector in cassock & surplice with vested acolytes. A very tony affair. (Not inside the church, I should add for the benefit of anyone who might wonder -- it took place on the lawn in front of the church, beside the churchyard.) However, I believe the current rector put a halt to it. Probably too much flak from PETA and the SPCA, notwithstanding the fact that there is an abundance of foxes -- we even see them occasionally in my neighborhood just outside the city limits and my son has seen them in his neighborhood, which is well within the city.
