A Blessing for Animals, 2022

Y'all, I've been using the same pet blessing for years. Rene found it online when we worked at FT together. It is incredible. And you can find it posted here by its author, Jan Richardson. I wanted to create a new one this year. So here it is. I'm working on a liturgy to go with it. I'll post that later this week if it works out. 

Like all worship materials shared here, this thing is copyleft. Be free to use or modify it. And cite this page when you do. 

If you kinda like these words, visit my author site and buy eight million copies of my book. Or perhaps some other number. 

Peace, all!

Happy St. Francis Sunday!

Tom

[ image: my dog, Samson ]

A Blessing for Animals

Thomas R. Gaulke

September 2022

When We Bless

It is a love letter. It is a prayer. It is a naming of our fears. It’s all of the things we’ve been trained to deliver in silence–head bowed, eyes closed, with butterflies. For this reason, a blessing is a vulnerable thing. 

But a blessing isn’t said in silence. It’s said out loud: I love you. I want God to be with you. The world is treacherous. And scary. And, always, I want you to be protected: by angels, by family, by friends. For you are cherished. You are admired. And you are loved.

And also: you are a part of me, even as you are a piece of the earth. If you were gone, my being would be pained and fractured. And I am certain that it’s the same for the rest of the world.

This is what we say when we say a blessing. Even if what we are saying is hidden beneath the words. And this is what we say when we bless the animals among us. 

So please, bless them with me. Let us confess our love and read our love letters out loud. 

We Bless

Birds perched on the gutter’s edge, spiders crouched in the corner, bees in the flowers, and worms in the church garden beds, your lives enrich the life of the world. In sky, in soil: You are blessed. You are loved.

Comfort when our anxieties overwhelm, companion when our loneliness has lingered too long; warmth on our laps, songs in our ears, beauty that enlivens our souls, all you who feel like home: You are blessed. You are loved.

Our help when work demands, our play when work does the same, our adventure when we’ve been lost to the humdrum, our connection to the earth, our cuddle-buddy when we’ve been standing all day. You are blessed. You are loved.

God as our Parent, you are our siblings. All earth was created as kin. May the gifts we receive from you be returned in kind. May our interactions be a place where dignity and care meet to dance. May the love we share stir the hopes of the prophets who envision a world at peace where lions lay down with lambs. You are blessed. You are loved. May God’s blessing always be upon you. May God’s blessing be upon the earth. Amen.