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Blessing of Animals / Francis of Assisi
This week is a great week to connect with the wider community. It is also a fantastic opportunity to raise issues of animal welfare, either for pets, laboratory animals or livestock.
Getting the touchy-feely (bring along a pet and we'll bless it) and the shocking/revolting reality of much animal production and experimental use could be tricky.
I confess a considerable ambivalence about simply "blessing pets" without exploring the wider issues of animal welfare on the one hand, or the ecoogical cost of pets on the other. In my thesis I waxed lyrical about the tendency of pets, as domestic animals, to tend to make us think of God as domestic and controllable too. Currently, though, not a day goes by without my two kids begging for a pet, and I'm not sure how much longer I can enforce my theological objections on them, since I had so many pets myself as a kid!
Anyhoo...
At Bellingen we are not doing this week's theme at the moment, partly because there is a huge global carnval in town that week, partly because its already got really hot and we'd be better inviting animals along in winter.
Still, I can offer two resources. I prepared an animal welfare prayer of confession (scroll down to do unto others) with video footage and an audio track which you are welcome to use.
The following liturgy was used by the Adelaide Ecofaith Community, which worships outdoors, so you will need to add to it, but some elements may be helpful. We used a reflection, by GoVeg, which is linked to below. It was great because it was "second hand" and therefore people could be challenged by it without having to respond directly to the speaker, or feeling that they were being put too on the spot.
Calling together
Welcome to Francis of Assisi day. This week is the blessing of the animals in the Season of Creation series.
In terms of blessing animals, we would have to acknowledge that most native animals were far more blessed when the Kaurna people were the dominant humans here than they are now.
We are challenged by the surviving elders, as by Francis, and by the modern sciences, to acknowledge and embrace other animals as relatives, as people. They are not objects put here at our disposal.
Today we are called to bless them, because they are
loved by the same God who loves us.
Last week we reflected on the affirmation that God is with us, and also that God is with "them." We took "Them" to be humans who are not like us. This week we consider them to be the other animals we share this planet with.
Let’s pray (repeat a line after me)
This is a modified Assisi prayer. I dont think we should be "never seeking so much to be consoled as to console" etc. We should seek both, since we love our neighbours as ourselves. The regular prayer is easy to find on the web.
God, make us instruments of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Spirit of Life, grant us the patience to console
And the courage to seek consolation
The patience to understand
And the courage to seek to be understood
The patience to love
And the courage to ask for love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and in accepting death that we are free for abundant life.
God of peace, love, pardon, union, faith, hope, light, joy. You are welcome here. We pray for a sense of your presence here amongst us this morning.
Body Prayer 2
Leader does a line, group follows
1. God is beyond us (hands outstretched high, heads up, to the universe)
2a. (open) God is here with us (hands or feet to the ground)
2b. (Trinitarian) God became one of us, walking this Earth as we do.
3. God is within us (hands on heart)
4. God is amongst us (hold hands in circle, opportunity to pray for each other)
Sharing 1:
People were invited to recollect and share if they liked, a time of “blessing” another animal, or having another animal bless them. We found that for each of the week's themes, asking people to share a tim eof connection with whatever element made up the theme for the week was very powerful.
READING 1; Francis’s sermon
“My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you…you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore…always seek to praise God.”
Input: GoVeg script (http://www.goveg.com/f-stfrancis.asp)
Blessing the Animals
We didn't ask people to bring animals along, but since we met in the park we went for our usual 10 mnute contemplative wander, this time looking for animals and birds, stretching out a hand and simply saying, "bless you." Or, as our 2 year old put it, "Hi magpie/duck/spider... have a great life!"
We included in that an invitation to make our offering a commitment to act for the welfare of at least one animal or species this week.
4 directions prayer:
We turn to the four compass directions and pray for:
East: new animals being born around us
North: adult animals. Especially those in the zoo to the north of where we met, and for their kind who remained in shrinking wild areas around the world.
West: those animals whose time is ending: species or individuals
South: those who have gone. Species. Favourite pet…
Song/chant
Sharing
People share their feelings/thoughts about the morning, without comment by others (that waits for morning tea)
Blessing
May our lives this week be full of the peace, love, pardon, union, faith, hope, light and joy which comes from pursuing life and the God of life, and may our actions bring that peace to other animals.
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