Christian Pure

Prayers for a Pet That Has Died: Thanks, Guilt, Grief and a Goodbye

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • Here are short prayers for the first hours after a pet dies, and for thanks, for guilt, for putting a pet to sleep, for an empty house, a grieving child and the other pets, for a burial, an anniversary and a new pet, and for a pet that is missing.
  • Psalm 104 and the Benedicite canticle of Morning Prayer (“O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord”) praise God for animals, and we can pray them at a goodbye.
  • Churches that pray for the dead write those prayers for human souls, but Christians can still thank God for an animal and commit it to him, since Scripture says he “preservest man and beast” (Psalm 36:6).
  • The Bible does not say whether pets go to heaven: Aquinas held that animal souls cannot exist apart from the body, while Romans 8:21 and Laudato si’ 243 speak of all creation renewed.
  • Saint Gertrude of Nivelles (died 659) is popularly called the patron of cats, though the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia records her as invoked “against fever, rats, and mice.”

When a pet dies, a short prayer can be enough: “Lord, thank you for [name] and every year we had together. You made [name], and you saw that it was good. I give [name] back to you. Comfort me and everyone who loved [name]. Amen.” Further down there are prayers for guilt, for children, for the other pets in the house and for a burial. Grief for an animal can weigh on us a great deal. If it has become…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 1:25; 9:10; 2 Samuel 12:3; Job 12:10; Psalm 34:18; 36:6; 104:24, 29–30; 145:9; Ecclesiastes 3:1, 21; Isaiah 11:6; Luke 12:6; Romans 8:21; James 1:17; Revelation 21:5). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
  • The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, p. 13. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 2416–2418. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8B.HTM
  • Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005. Appendix, “Eternal Rest.” https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html
  • Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae, First Part, question 75, article 3. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 1920. https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1075.htm
  • Francis. Laudato si’, encyclical letter, 24 May 2015, paragraph 243. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
  • Ott, Michael. “St. Gertrude of Nivelles.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06533c.htm

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