What is the blog list?
When I first started blogging I came upon a list of women who blogged through 4-real learning and I saved it here because I couldn’t figure out how to make widgets work with wordpress.com blogs… anyhow the list ended up getting horribly out of date and, as part of my new year’s “clean up” I am going through and deleting old links and pruning out things so the list is useful to me.
Set One
- A Garden of Roses and Lilies
- Adventures in Bodenburg
- Catholic Mom’s Journey
- Catholic Moonlight in Vermont
- Crafty in Coffeeland
- Filled With Joy
- Five Monkeys and a Princess
- “Go East,” they said…
- Home Sweet Heart
- Island in the Grove
- Magnolia Cul-de-Sac
- Mary’s Muse
- Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
- Moments Like These
- My Thoughtful Spot
- Our Magnum Opus
- Pinewood Castle
- RamFamInNOVA
- Remembering Today
- S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen
- Sheaf’s Homeschool Blog
- St. Francis Academy
- Sunflowers and a Spoonful of Sugar
- The Best of Times
- Catholic Icing
- The Journey of a Mother’s Heart
- Trinity Acres
- Under Her Starry Mantle
- Yes, they’re all ours!
Set Two
- As Cozy as Spring
- Blair’s Blessings
- And Now for Seven
- At Home Science
- By Hand, With Heart…hand-knit designs
- Carmie’s Cozy Conifer Cabin
- causa nostrae laetitiae
- cause of our joy
- Chez Ouiz
- Homeschooling Down Under
- Eileen on Him… at Least I Try!
- Family in Feast and Feria
- Fine Old Family
- Frabjous Days
- Gray Family Circus
- Just Another Catholic Mom
- Let the Little Ones Come
- Living on Adrenaline
- Living Without School
- Science of Relations
- Running with Perseverance
- Sacred Heart of Jesus Academy
- Smithflections
- Sonlight Garden
- Starry Sky Ranch
- Ten Kids and a Dog
- The Bookworm
- The Cabbage Patch
- The Jacobite Rose
- Three Plus Two
- Waltzing Matilda
Set Three
- A Gypsy Caravan
- And Sometimes Tea
- Lee in the Woods
- Gladdest Hours
- Home Spun Jugglin
- Minnesota Mom
- On Pins and Needles
- Pixilated School Notes
- Pondered in my Heart
- Seven Little Australians
- Tales From the Bonny Blue House
- The Mac and Cheese Chronicles
Set Four
- By Sun and Candlelight
- Shower of Roses
- Sweetness and Light
- Wildflowers and Marbles
- passionate homemaking
→
Simply Catholic 
I’ve recently joined the Catholic Church but am unsure how the Church believes in pets that have passed away. I recently lost my beloved dog of 15 years. She was my “baby” and the loss of her devistated me. Many people felt I was over reacting to her death. But I was just “reacting” as I grieved so much for her. Am I being selfish and how should I react to her loss as a Catholic?
Well, I am not an expert in theology, but I do know what it is to grieve a pet.
If you look over at Catholic Answers there is a pretty good answer. http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=53700 The short of it is that we just aren’t sure what happens to animals. While we know they have spirits, animus, they don’t have the indwelling spirit of God, a soul. An animal acts on nature and instinct, they do not have a moral sense. Animals can’t sin, they therefore can neither deserve hell nor merit heaven, but they are part of creation destined to be renewed in the world to come.
We also know that heaven is complete joy. I remember telling my children when our very beloved cat died that if we needed Tom to be happy in heaven no doubt Tom would be there. And I do honestly believe that. My husband and I speculate that our cat Mr Kitty is the new home of the animus of Tom, a reincarnated cat if you will. Mostly just silly fun on our part, but I kind of like the idea.
I don’t think there is any one way for people to grieve the loss of the things they love. The first time I ever saw my dad cry was when his St Bernard, Morgan, died. Having cried over many pets I understand the special place in our lives these creatures have. I also remember crying bitterly when I lost my piano in a natural disaster as a teen. The church doesn’t dictate our emotional responses to things such as this.
So react as you feel the need; grieve as deeply as you want. It would be one thing if you were allowing despair to eat at your heart over this. If you were to turn from God and His Church over the death of a pet that would certainly be wrong, but just to honestly be sad and grieving doesn’t seem to me to be an issue.
We buried our Tom in his favorite spot in the rose garden, and placed a St Francis statue to mark the spot. My daughter Ashley said a little prayer asking St Francis to look after Tom for her and that brought her a great deal of comfort.
I like the CCC quote from the Catholic Answers article: The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, “so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just,” sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ
Our pets, all animals are part of the natural world. I take comfort in that, all of nature and creation will be renewed and will glorify the risen Lord.