At 07:05 AM 17/6/98 EDT, Sandford MacLean wrote:
>
>I don't know why we do not pray more often for animals.
>
>In the Anglican Missal, though, and I would assume the Roman Missal of
yore as
>well, there are prayers "In time of Murrain among Animals," the Collect
being:
>>O God , who hast given even the dumb beasts to be a succour and comfort to
>man's labour: we humbly beseech thee that thou wouldest not suffer them to
>perish; but grant that, forasmuch as the sustenance of man without them
cannot
>but fail, so they may ever be profitable for our necessities. Through...<
>
>This collect is indeed a moving tribute to the proper relationship between
man
>and animal, especially "the sustenance of man without them cannot but fail"!
>
While I'm all in favour of praying for the animals (I've just attended a
bible study on the flood story, where we noted that the rainbow is said to
remind God of a commitment to all living things), I'm struck by the fact
that the prayer quoted seems to consider the welfare of animals only in
relation to their usefulness to humans -- in the light of all those
references in the Hebrew scriptures to God's care for wild animals which
have no particular "usefulness", I think we could (and probably should)
certainly pray for the wellbeing of all of our fellow creatures.
Cheers,
inari
<><
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Inari Thiel, Engineering, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Australia
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I'm pink, therefore I'm Spam
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