Yesterday was the feast day of one of the most beloved saints in the history of Christianity, Saint Francis of Assisi. As may often happen, his legacy has been watered down over the years in ways that don’t fully appreciate the ways in which he really made an impact in his day as well as his great contributions over the years. He challenged the hierarchy of the church in his day, embraced simplicity and poverty as a daily commitment, traveled to the Holy Land to meet with Muslims and advocate for interfaith respect, was deeply committed to the ways of peace, and yes, he valued all of God’s creation and had a great love for animals. And so many churches around the world mark the anniversary of his feast day by offering a blessing for animals to remind us of the ways in which the love of God is manifested through them. Martin Buber, the twentieth century Austrian theologian, once wrote, “In a wonderful and inexpressible way God is created in his creatures.” That was certainly the belief of many spiritual people over the ages, that all of God’s creation has a piece of the divine within it. Let us pray,
In 2009, legendary Italian freediver Enzo Maiorca was diving off the coast of Syracuse with his daughter Rossana when something extraordinary happened.
While descending into the blue, Enzo felt a gentle nudge on his back. Turning around, he saw a dolphin — but it wasn’t there to play. It was pleading for help.
The dolphin dove, and Enzo followed. At around 15 meters deep, they found a second dolphin — trapped in an abandoned fishing net. Without hesitation, Enzo called to his daughter for a knife and carefully cut the net loose.
The moment the dolphin was freed, it released a sound Enzo would later describe as “almost a human cry.”
When the dolphin reached the surface, the divers realized it was a pregnant female — and just moments later, she gave birth in open water.
The male dolphin circled the scene, then gently swam up to Enzo, touched his cheek with its snout — like a kiss — and vanished into the deep with his new family. Later, Enzo reflected: “Until man learns to respect and speak to the natural world, he can never truly understand his place on this Earth.”
Throughout scripture, we hear many references to animals. We are comforted by thoughts of sheep lying down in green pastures. We hear of donkeys and camels helping people to safely travel from one place to another. We are assured that just as God feeds the birds of the air, God will also feed us. We hear cooing doves carrying branches of hope, and we are even called to imagine that someday the lion and the lamb will lay down together. It’s the stories of animals in Bible that always give us glimpses of peace. Even Daniel found himself thrown into a lion’s den and came out unharmed. (Glimpses of Peace, Rev. Kelly Thiebault)
The Rev. Gary Kowalski, published a book some years ago entitled The Souls of Animals. He understood that much had been written about the intelligence of animals and their ability to solve problems, but as a minister, he wanted to explore the question from a spiritual vantage point. He sought out to explore what defines spirituality and whether we might be able to say that animals have souls.
When I think about spirituality, I think in terms of relationships, of our relationship to ourselves, our relationships to one another, to all of creation and most importantly our relationship with our creator. Spirituality is not easy to define, but it encompasses a lot of the ways in which we consider the deeper meanings and experiences of life. How do we make meaning from our own lives and make meaning from what happens in the world? How do we speak about the ultimate questions of life and death, of grief and joy, of right and wrong? What is it within us that invites us to appreciate music and art, what is that deep place within us that yearns for a deeper connection with the whole of creation and with the infinite?
Kowalski thought about it in this way, “without anthropomorphizing our nonhuman relations we can acknowledge that animals share many human characteristics. They have emotional lives, experience love and fear, and possess their own integrity, which suffers when not respected. They play and are curious about their world. They develop loyalties and display altruism.” They have what he calls, “animal faith,” a spontaneity and directness that can be most enlightening.”
I wonder how each of us might define the concept of a soul. How do we explain that deepest part of our spiritual being. I imagine that it is what makes us uniquely who we are, that it is that part of our self that is hard to describe in clear terms and it is something which we cannot see or measure. However, our souls are manifested through our emotions-our joy and laughter, our tears and grief, through acts of courage and heroism, in our capacity to be generous and offer forgiveness. Rev. Kowalski writes, “Soul is what’s behind the scenes in the tough and tender moments when we are most intensely and grippingly alive. Soul is the point at which our lives intersect the timeless, our love of goodness, our zest for beauty, our passion for truth. Soul is what makes each of our lives a microcosm-not just a meaningless fragment of the universe, but at some level a reflection of the whole.”
Much as we cannot definitively prove the existence of the souls of persons, so it is with animals, but much like our relationships with one another, if we open our hearts to other creatures and allow ourselves to sympathize with their joys and struggles, we discover that in these exchanges we are deeply touched and changed. “There is an inwardness in other creatures that awakens what is innermost in ourselves.” We have much to learn from animals and from all of creation.
Last week, we learned of the death of Dr. Jane Goodall, the renowned researcher of chimpanzees at the age of 91. I imagine most, if not all of you, have heard something about her life and work among the chimpanzees in Africa. As a young child, she was fascinated by animals and she devoted much of her life to living among the chimpanzees. The Jane Goodall Institute announced the primatologist’s death Wednesday. She had been scheduled to meet with students and teachers on Wednesday to launch the planting of 5,000 trees around wildfire burn zones in the Los Angeles area. In a statement, the Institute named in her honor noted, ‘Her discoveries “revolutionized science; she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.”
“While living among chimpanzees in Africa decades ago, Goodall documented the animals using tools and doing other activities previously believed to be exclusive to humans, and also noted their distinct personalities. Her observations and subsequent magazine and documentary appearances in the 1960s transformed how the world perceived not only humans’ closest living biological relatives but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals, while propelling her into the public consciousness.” As her obituary explained.
“While first studying chimps in Tanzania in the early 1960s, Goodall was known for her unconventional approach. She didn’t simply observe them from afar but immersed herself in every aspect of their lives. She fed them and gave them names instead of numbers, which some scientists criticized. Her findings were circulated to millions when she first appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1963 and later in a documentary. A collection of photos of Goodall in the field helped her and even some of the chimps become famous. One image showed her crouching across from an infant chimpanzee named Flint. Each has arms outstretched, reaching for the other. In 1972, the Sunday Times published an obituary for Flo, who was Flint’s mother and the dominant matriarch, after she was found face down on the edge of a stream. Flint died soon after showing signs of grief and losing weight.” (The Boston Globe, 10/2/2025)
I trust that many of us fully appreciate the ways in which animals bring joy and meaning to our lives. If we look into the eyes of our own precious friends, we see something deeper there, a sympathy perhaps, a sense of caring. We know that therapy dogs and horses bring amazing healing to many lives. Children with autism seem to respond in a special way to dogs or horses and to communicate in ways they are unable to with members of their own human family.
We share this planet with many living and amazing creatures, most of which are not domesticated, and many of whom are struggling just to stay alive as their habitats are encroached upon or they become the prey of poachers for financial advantage. It is more important than ever to remember that all living things need one another for survival, yes, but we know that we need one another and all living things also to thrive, to make meaning of our lives, to learn and move forward in life. We are fellow travelers on this journey and our care for the living creatures of this earth is deeply connected to our own spiritual development as well as our responsibility as stewards. The animals of our planet are a gift and our survival is directly linked to their well-being.