What do you think of "A Prayer for Animals"?

Question

I find this one of the most beatiful and moving prayers I know; I'm curious to see if others are as deeply affected by it as I am. What do you think?

A PRAYER FOR ANIMALS -- by Albert Schweitzer

Hear our humble prayer, O God,
for our friends the animals,
especially for animals who are suffering;
for animals that are overworked,
underfed and cruelly treated;
for all wistful creatures in captivity
that beat their wings against bars;
for any that are hunted or lost or deserted
or frightened or hungry;
for all that must be put death.

We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity,
and for those who deal with them
we ask a heart of compassion
and gentle hands and kindly words.

Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals,
and so to share the blessings of the merciful.

Answer 1

That's good. Have you read William Blake's "Auguries Of Innocence"? There's also a good poem by Ralph Hope Hodgeson that goes like this:
Twould ring the bells of Heaven
Their wildest peal for years
If parson lost his senses
And people came to theirs
And he and they together
Knelt down with angry prayers
For tamed and shabby tigers
And dancing dogs and bears
And wretched blind pit ponies
And little hunted hares.

Answer 2

That is a very nice poem or prayer. It would have been nice if animals were treated with the kindness and respect that they deserved all thrue history, religion has given licence to cruel and hatefull people to abuse and kill animals any way they liked since it's inception. The idea that animals have no soul thefore giving humans the right to do what they wish with them has been the most shamefull and regetable idea to ever come along. Animals are the most wonderfull creatures (excluding the worst animal- Human) to ever grace the face of the planet. Any god that would create these wonderfull creatures and then throw them to the humans to do with as they wished, telling the humans that the animals have no soul and then knowing what they would do with them, ( wipe out entire species) this god would have to be less than all loving and all good.
I Love all animals and believe that they deserve much better than what we have done with them.
I think that you feel the same way for the animals that I do becouse your poem was very caring and supportive of animals. I just want to point out that praying to a god that condones the treatment that man has given animals even after he is believed to have created them could not be all that loving.

Answer 3

I like it as well. I think it's beautiful. Animals are creatures we should be protecting and taking care of just as we do the earth. Colossians 1:19-20 says, "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross." The verse means all things. That does indeed include animals in my mind. I have prayed or my own pets before, and I know my prayers were answered.

Amanda

Answer 4

My Dog came back. somehow.another dog helped him home .I saw the other dog standing their. he couldn't stand when i found him at the back fence.his hips were broken .the doctor said put him down,he even with a lot of pins put into his hips wouldn't walk again.he said. I prayed over him and wrapped him tight. with the guidance of the spirit,I prayed over him. layed hands on him. I loved him.feed him all Alpo. put him the the little bedroom. and he ran fine after he healed.took a couple of months.I would rub his hips for him after that and he would sometimes back up to me to rub him. I loved him very much I miss him, he died a while back.
when he got missing I prayed about it and God told me to go to the park to holler for him, I did at night .woke people up in there homes hollering. but I hollered for half an hour but he did come? but the next day he came home.I just know that other dog must have helped him home.
The white river dolphin in china was declared extinct a month ago, That is such a terrible shame.
The orangutans will be gone from the wild in ten years.
The Japanese still hunt our whale and dolphin friends.
Thank You for the poem.

Answer 5

Dear
It is a nice prayer
We are also animals but the defference is we are talking and thinking animals
each animal has got a fixed charector, but for us no fixed charector , we change often depending upon circumstances
to say in short we are more vulnerable and dangerous than animals

Answer 6

I think that it is a nice poem/prayer but that the world needs a lot lot lot more people who are taking a concern for thier fellow man.

Answer 7

I'm a Humanist, and I think they are beautiful words.

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Answer 8

That is awesome and a good reminder that we should care for all living things.

Answer 9

Awwww....That really is a sweet and moving prayer.

Answer 10

we can pray for anything that our hearts guide us to pray for.