"It is impossible to obtain our potential as humans without an inter-relatedness to animals and nature. The natural world opens us to silence in order that we may hear beyond ourselves. It is essential to our wholeness. Without it, we would not grow emotionally or spiritually. It is this spiritual dimension that allows us to reach out beyond ourselves, seek our life's work and take pleasure in this work.

Peoples of the past saw animals as a symbol of power and nurturance and surrounded themselves with animals in order to feel safe. We who have enjoyed the companionship of animals in our everyday lives, who witness them in nature, or who have seen them in the lives of other, know for certain the profound effect they have on us. Animals teach us about life, suffering and death. They provide for us a space where we can feel safe and be alone, a place where we can cultivate the contemplative part of ourselves.

As Albert Schweitzer said, 'We are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.'"

Mother Hildegard George
Our Lady Of The Rock
Shaw Island, WA


"In wildness is the preservation of the World."
"We can never have enough of Nature."

Henry David Thoreau


"Nature is a part of our humanity."

Henry Beston


"Every creature is a blessed creature or it is no creature at all."

Andrew Linzey, "Animal Theology"


"In a wonderful and inexpressible way God is created in his creatures."

John Scotus Erigena


"...something in us turns towards that which is genuine, like a flower turns toward the light. A dog never gives less than one hundred percent of himself. Can you imagine humans doing this? If they would, a transformation would come over the entire world."

J. Allen Boone, "The Language of Silence"


"...the animal[s] shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time..."

Henry Beston, "The Outermost House"


"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures."

Albert Einstein


"If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great lonelinesss of spirit."

Chief Seattle


"[We cannot] discount the lives of sensitive and intelligent creatures merely because they assume nonhuman form. The things that make life most precious and blessed-courage and daring, conscience and compassion, imagination and originality, fantasy and play-do not belong to our kind alone."

Gray Kowalski "The Souls of Animals"


"As we studied each other, I became aware that although he was prepared to be friendly...Shawano's glowing eyes probed into my being, reading me, looking for weakness, for fear, for aggression-above all, for honesty. No one can deceive the eyes of a wolf"

R.D. Lawrence, "In Praise of Wolves"


"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened"

Anatole France


"Longer than memory we have known that each animal has its power and place, each a skill, virtue, wisdom, innocence-a special access to the structure and flow of the world. Each surpasses ourselves in some way. Together, sacred, they help hold the cosmos together, making it a joy and beauty to behold, but above all a challenge to understand as story, drama and sacred play."

Paul Shepard "The Others"


" Animals draw us out of the past and future and into the present moment -- out of our minds and into our hearts where we belong. From this state of awareness we find that we can touch the soul of another and through the other we can touch God. Animals remind us of universal virtues that we seek to perfect within our own beings: beauty, humility, serenity, sacrifice, devotion, patience, presence, and unconditional love."

Sharon Callahan



There is more about animals & spirituality at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary



~HOME~