One
For animals neglected and ill-treated

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals hunted to death

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals exhibited for
entertainment

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals killed for convenience

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals in crates and tethers

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals genetically manipulated

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals bought and sold in
markets

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals suffering in laboratories

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals patented as inventions

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One
For animals slaughtered for food

All
Give us new hearts, O God.

One:
O God
give us new hearts
that we may feel again
the suffering of our
fellow creatures;

deliver us
from ourselves
and the evil
we inflict
on the animal world.

There follows a pause for reflection

One
From our denigration of animals

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From thinking of animals as things

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our indifference to cruelty

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our systematic exploitation of
animals

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From treating animals as machines

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our abdication of responsibility

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our spiritual blindness

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our shrunken sensibilities

All
Free us, O Lord.

One
From our hardness of heart

All
Free us, O Lord.

Andrew Linzey in Animal Rites: Liturgies of Animal Care