VICAR

Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well and that Your autumn is going well for You.

This week I would like to focus on our pets.

Proverbs 12:10 says, “The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.” Kindness to animals is godly. In fact, caring for them is part of our purpose. 

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’” (Gen. 1:26).

God made us in His image “so” that we might take care of the animals. Could it be that as image bearers we most reflect God when we tend His creatures? Adam, the first man, spent his first day on earth working with God naming the animals. 

“Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals” (Gen. 2:19-20).

Please pray for Your pets and for those pets which belong to others which are lost or ill. God Bless You and Your pets. Have a peaceful Sunday and a good week ahead.

Good St. Francis, you loved all of God’s creatures. To you they were your brothers and sisters. Help us to follow your example of treating every living thing with kindness. St. Francis, Patron Saint of animals, watch over my pet and keep my companion safe and healthy. Amen.

Editorial Note: This prayer was received by the magazine on 6th October 2023. On 7th October 2023 Hamas attacked Israel. Ideally, the prayer above would have been a Prayer for Israel. So, given the circumstances, a Prayer for Israel is added below:

Our brothers and sisters the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and captivity who wander over sea and over land — may God have mercy on them, and bring them from distress to comfort, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption, now, swiftly, and soon. And let us say: Amen.