For today’s service honoring the animals, let us imagine the chalice flame as the flame of life that burns so brightly in all living creatures...from the magnificent to the mundane...from the beautiful to the downright ugly (at least from our human viewpoint).

In creatures known and unknown, seen and unseen.

In the creatures who inspire us...the soaring eagles in the sky, the mighty elephants in the land, and our cousins, the wonderful dolphins and whales, in the sea.

And even in the billions of microscopic creatures who inhabit our own bodies, and partner with us, enabling us to live and thrive.

As we gaze into the adoring eyes of our beloved companion animals, and see that flame burning so brightly, let us ever be mindful of our place on the great web...as only one of the thousands of species with whom we share an interdependence on this journey through life.

Today let us be thankful, and humble, as we honor the animals.

Honoring the Animals Reading, by Ed McClaran

At the Friends of Homeless Animals shelter, there are 40 acres of woods with many wonderful trails where the volunteers take the dogs for walks. Along the trails are memorial pictures of lost animal friends and many inspirational quotes about nature, animals and dogs. Today, I’d like to share some of those quotes with you.

Come forth into the light of things…let nature be your teacher. – William Wordsworth

Never a day passes that I do myself the honor to commune with some of Nature’s varied forms. – George Washington Carver

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. – George Graham Vest

Animals are such agreeable friends…they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. – George Eliot

The gift I’m sending you is called a dog, and is, in fact, the most precious and valuable possession of mankind. – Theodorus Gaza (15th century Greek Scholar)

Any religion not based on respect for life is not a true religion. Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not find peace. – Albert Schweitzer

You think these dogs will not be in heaven! I tell you they will be there long before any of us. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. – Anatole France

He cannot be a gentleman that loveth not a dog. – English Proverb

The best thing about a man is his dog. – French Proverb

The greatness of a nation, and its moral progress, can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mohandas Gandhi

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace. – Milan Kundera

The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe. – Albert Schweitzer