{"id":20621,"date":"2021-10-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20621"},"modified":"2021-10-07T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T14:00:00","slug":"ensouled-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20621","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Ensouled Animals&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wms76AfllVE\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Readers of the Daily Meditations may be familiar with the theological and scientific work of Ilia Delio. Today we share a reflection that honors both her Franciscan theology and her personal relationship with a beloved pet. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is almost a week since our beloved cat, Mango, was put\nto sleep. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had rescued Mango a little more than eight years\nearlier. . . . He liked to sleep in the chapel and often joined us for prayer\nin the evening. Mango was real presence. And it is his presence that was sorely\nmissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent questions in ecology and theology have focused on\nanimal life. Do animals have souls? Do animals go to heaven? Without becoming\nentangled in theological discourse, I want to say quite clearly that Mango was\nensouled. His soul was a core constitutive beingness, a particularity of life\nthat was completely unique, with his own personality and mannerisms. To use the\nlanguage of [Franciscan philosopher] Duns Scotus, Mango revealed a <em>haecceitas<\/em>,\nhis own \u201cthisness.\u201d Scotus placed a great emphasis on the inherent dignity of\neach and every thing that exists. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each living being gives glory to God by its unique, core\nconstitutive being. . . . To be a creature of God is to be brought into\nrelationship in such a way that the divine mystery is expressed in each\nconcrete existence. Soul is the mirror of creaturely relatedness that reflects\nthe vitality of divine Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did not have to wonder whether or not Mango had a soul.\nI knew it implicitly by the way he listened to me talking or thinking aloud,\nthe way he sat on my office chair waiting for me to finish writing so he could\neat, or simply the way he looked at me\u2014eye to eye\u2014in the early morning, at the\nstart of a new day. Soul existence is expressed in the language of love. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love makes us <em>something<\/em>; it makes us alive and\ndraws us in to the dynamism of life, sustaining life\u2019s flow despite many layers\nof sufferings and disappointments. . . . If God is love, then the vitality of\nlove, even the love of a furry creature, <em>is<\/em> the dynamic presence of God. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every creature is born out of the love of God, sustained\nin love, and transformed in love. Every sparrow that falls to the ground is\nknown and loved by God (cf. Matthew 10:29); the Spirit of God is present in\nlove to each creature here and now so that all creaturely life shares in cosmic\ncommunion. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I reflect on Mango\u2019s death, his <em>haecceitas<\/em>,\nand the mystery of love, I have no doubt that his core love-energy will endure.\nHis life has been inscribed on mine; the memory of his life is entangled with\nmy own. My heart grieves for Brother Mango, my faithful companion, but I\nbelieve we shall be reunited in God\u2019s eternal embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ANXIETY IS A RESULT OF envisioning the future without Me. So\nthe best defense against worry is staying in communication with Me. When you\nturn your thoughts toward Me, you can think much more positively. Remember to\nlisten as well as to speak, making your thoughts a dialogue with Me. If you\nmust consider upcoming events, follow these rules: 1) Do not linger in the\nfuture, because anxieties sprout up like mushrooms when you wander there. 2)\nRemember the promise of My continual Presence; include Me in any imagery that\ncomes to mind. This mental discipline does not come easily because you are\naccustomed to being god of your fantasies. However, the reality of My Presence\nwith you, now and forevermore, outshines any fantasy you could ever imagine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LUKE 12:22\u201326; Then\nJesus said to his disciples: &#8220;Therefore I tell you, do not worry about\nyour life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. \u00b2\u00b3For\nlife is more than food, and the body more than clothes. \u00b2\u2074Consider the ravens:\nThey do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.\nAnd how much more valuable you are than birds! \u00b2\u2075Who of you by worrying can add\na single hour to your life? \u00b2\u2076Since you cannot do this very little thing, why\ndo you worry about the rest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EPHESIANS 3:20\u201321; Now to him who is able to do immeasurably\nmore than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within\nus, ^21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all\ngenerations, for ever and ever! Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening Devotional\n(Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 600). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readers of the Daily Meditations may be familiar with the theological and scientific work of Ilia Delio. Today we share a reflection that honors both her Franciscan theology and her personal relationship with a beloved pet. It is almost a week since our beloved cat, Mango, was put to sleep. . . . We had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20622,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621\/revisions\/20622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}