Bella scrunched up her face as the holy water splashed on her wrinkly nose. It was the 1½-year-old American bulldog’s turn with the Rev. Matthew Brown at the Holy Apostles Eastern Orthodox Church’s first-ever pet blessing on Saturday. “Oh, God, enlarge with us the sense of fellowship with all living things,” Brown said. “Our brothers and animals who you gave the earth as their home in common with us. Remember with shame that in the past that we have exercised high dominion as man with cruelty ... We realize that they live not for us alone, but for themselves and for being, and that they love the sweetness of life,” he continued.

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