Animal Blessing

Beginning Quotation:

Famous Russian writer, Fyodor Mikhail Dostoyevsky wrote the following:

Love all God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand.

Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light!

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.

And once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it

ceaselessly, more and more every day.

And you will at last come to love the whole world with an abiding, universal love.

Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and untroubled joy.

Do not, therefore trouble [them]; do not deprive them of their joy.

Do not go against God’s intent.

From the Bible:

The righteous care for their animals, but the wicked are cruel.

Proverbs 12.10

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed;

their young shall lie down together,

and the lion shall eat straw like an ox.

The suckling child shall play

over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child

shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full

of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

(Isaiah 11.6-9, RSV)

Our Prayer

God and Father of us all,

You fill us with wonder and cause us to stand in awe;

and so to praise you for the richness of the world

you have laid before us.

God of the universe all creatures praise you;

the sun setting on the lake,

the birds flying upward toward the heavens;

the growl of the bear;

the darting of the stickleback;

the purring of the cat,

the wide eyes of the tiger;

the swift legs of the cheetah,

the dance of the hare;

the lapping of the dog,

the descent of the dove.

God of a thousand ears

the music of your creatures

resounds throughout creation

and in heaven a symphony is made.

All fill us with wonder, Lord

to stand in awe;

to stand and stare;

and so to praise you

for the richness of the world

you have laid before us.

We pray this in your Name, Amen.