Do Animals Have Souls?

[AidanM32]

Listining to a psychic is against the Catholic religion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (number 2116) says: “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recource to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to 'unveil the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena or clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. The contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”

I have a friend who i talk to over email… she is a psychic, she does readings for lots of people, and she doesn’t charge nothing, i asked her one day “why do you not charge?” she said “God has giving me this gift and i should share it with the world” and thing is she said she has had no training… it came naturaly. See her grandmother was a psychic and she was actually a catholic and her grandmother onced done a reading for a priest, but sadly her grandmother has passed now.

Aidan.

 

[kooldood]

Thanks to everybody!

But… you guys are kind of repeating the same thing over and over again. I got it. And the psychich thing is kinda off topic. But thanks again! I think I get it… correct me if I’m wrong…

Animals have souls

They may, and probably do, have feelings

We may use them for food and clothing

We may not abuse them

They are a manifestation of God’s glory

 

[Robintrinket]

Thanks to everybody!

Animals have souls

Animals have *physical *souls, but they do not have *spiritual *souls, with intellect and free will as humans do. Spiritual souls are what we usually think of when we say “souls”, so saying that animals have “souls” can be confusing.

 

[Robintrinket]

Just a quick note here. The psychics that citation 2116 refers to is the business up the street that charges you to tell you what you may or may not want to hear.

From the time of the Old Testament to this day the Church has revered many men and women who had psychic powers. These men and women are not in business. Psychology calls them psychic and it is not referring to Madam Palm and Fifty who reads you palm for $50. Mystical theology does not use the term psychic, but does acknowledge that there are and have always been men and women who can read the soul. What are they reading? They are reading your mind. They know what is there, even when you have forgotten. A good modern example is Padre Pio. These people have a very special gift. They can look at a person and read what is deeply hidden. There have been others like Padre Pio. Brother Andre was another one of those gifted people. He could read a person’s illnesses. There are other people who have this psychic gift, who are not Blesseds or canonized saints.

The few people whom I have met with this gift in my ministry doing spiritual guidance, I refer to them as having the gift of profound insight. Those who truly have the gift use it as a gift. They won’t charge you $50 to tell you a bunch of nonsense. The truth is that there are not many people who have these gifts. They are an extraordinary minority.

During the Middle Ages there was not such thing as Behavioral Psychology or the study of the para-normal. These folks did not get labels. Behavioral Psychology would describe someone like Francis of Assisi as an Animal Whisperer. There is much historical evidence, from eye-witnesses, that our Holy Father had the ability to understand animals and communicate with them in a way that was out of the ordinary. There are two very famous stories, one in which he asks the larks to stop singing so he can finish preaching and another in which he tames a wolf at Gubbio.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

This is getting very off-topic, but the CCC says nothing about giving money to people for “divination”, or that divination only includes palm-reading. It says “All forms of divination are to be rejected”. No exceptions or conditions are given. If you read and believe horoscopes in the newspaper, believe in omens, or use tarot cards, you don’t pay to do these things, but they are still wrong. You are trying to find out something you have no right to know (having “a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings”) and attributing to a person or thing a power that belongs to God alone.

I know that people trying to communicate with the dead is called spiritism, and is severely condemned by the Church. The “psychic” in the newspaper that the one person referred to, (that said that a dog that had died was in heaven) seems to have been one of these, claiming to have communicated with desceased loved ones. I have even read that spiritism is even connected with diabolical possession, that people who practice it call on devils whether they know and intend it or not.

Sure, many people in the Bible, and many saints had miraculous powers given to them by God. There is a difference between such people and a palm reader, and it isn’t that the prophets and saints didn’t charge! The palm reader is using, or at least claiming to use “hidden powers”, and is trying to know something he has no right to know. God gave special powers to saints and prophets, but no one has a right to try to obtain such powers for themselves. (Also, when someone refers to a “psychic”, they are not usually talking about a saint or prophet, but someone who does tarot or spriritism or something!)

The CCC says (number 2115), says, “God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it.”

 

[tonyrey]

… :banghead:

 

[Robintrinket]

I have a friend who i talk to over email… she is a psychic, she does readings for lots of people, and she doesn’t charge nothing, i asked her one day “why do you not charge?” she said “God has giving me this gift and i should share it with the world” and thing is she said she has had no training… it came naturaly. See her grandmother was a psychic and she was actually a catholic and her grandmother onced done a reading for a priest, but sadly her grandmother has passed now.

Aidan.

What kind of “readings” does she do? You should be very cautious about someone who claims to have a special power, because God gives supernatural powers (like the prophets and saints had) to very few people. Anyone can lie about having a power, or about where they claim to have the power from.

Be especially cautious of someone you meet online (you say you talk to her over email) because such a person may be trying to get personal information from you. If you met this person online, you have no idea who he or she really is, and have no way of knowing if anything he or she is telling you is true. If this is the case, it certainly would be wise to stop communicating with this person.

 

[kimmielittle]

Thanks to everybody!

But… you guys are kind of repeating the same thing over and over again. I got it. And the psychich thing is kinda off topic. But thanks again! I think I get it… correct me if I’m wrong…

Animals have souls

They may, and probably do, have feelings

We may use them for food and clothing

We may not abuse them

They are a manifestation of God’s glory

 

[Robintrinket]

See her grandmother was a psychic and she was actually a catholic and her grandmother onced done a reading for a priest…

Just because someone is Catholic or a priest and does something does not necesarily make it right. Catholics and priests sin, too. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear that divination is wrong, so if that is what this friend of yours is doing, it is wrong.

 

[JReducation]

This is getting very off-topic, but the CCC says nothing about giving money to people for “divination”, or that divination only includes palm-reading. It says “All forms of divination are to be rejected”. No exceptions or conditions are given. If you read and believe horoscopes in the newspaper, believe in omens, or use tarot cards, you don’t pay to do these things, but they are still wrong. You are trying to find out something you have no right to know (having “a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings”) and attributing to a person or thing a power that belongs to God alone.

I know that people trying to communicate with the dead is called spiritism, and is severely condemned by the Church. The “psychic” in the newspaper that the one person referred to, (that said that a dog that had died was in heaven) seems to have been one of these, claiming to have communicated with desceased loved ones. I have even read that spiritism is even connected with diabolical possession, that people who practice it call on devils whether they know and intend it or not.

Sure, many people in the Bible, and many saints had miraculous powers given to them by God. There is a difference between such people and a palm reader, and it isn’t that the prophets and saints didn’t charge! The palm reader is using, or at least claiming to use “hidden powers”, and is trying to know something he has no right to know. God gave special powers to saints and prophets, but no one has a right to try to obtain such powers for themselves. (Also, when someone refers to a “psychic”, they are not usually talking about a saint or prophet, but someone who does tarot or spriritism or something!)

The CCC says (number 2115), says, “God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it.”

The people that you’re describing are not the kind of psychic that I was thinking about. I was thinking about people who have psychic abilities. I’m talking about people who have extraordinary psychic abilities, real ones, not divination. But that’s a topic for a forum in human behavior and applied psychology.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[AidanM32]

What kind of “readings” does she do? You should be very cautious about someone who claims to have a special power, because God gives supernatural powers (like the prophets and saints had) to very few people. Anyone can lie about having a power, or about where they claim to have the power from.

Be especially cautious of someone you meet online (you say you talk to her over email) because such a person may be trying to get personal information from you. If you met this person online, you have no idea who he or she really is, and have no way of knowing if anything he or she is telling you is true. If this is the case, it certainly would be wise to stop communicating with this person.

She gives reading like… if your loved ones have passed, she will get in touch with them for you. She is a past life reader… she doesn’t tell the future, we first meet over twitter and then i give her my email and she gave me her’s so she can send the reading, she does all her work through God and she renouns satan and all the evil sprits, she hasn’t done them in a while because she i very sick at the minute.

 

[Robintrinket]

She gives reading like… if your loved ones have passed, she will get in touch with them for you. She is a past life reader… she doesn’t tell the future, we first meet over twitter and then i give her my email and she gave me her’s so she can send the reading, she does all her work through God and she renouns satan and all the evil sprits, she hasn’t done them in a while because she i very sick at the minute.

A “past life reader” and getting in touch with deceased people through a person supposed to be able to contact them sounds a lot like spiritism to me. It used to be known as “necromancy”. Spiritism supposedly gets in touch with the dead through a certain person called a “medium” supposedly able to communicate with the spirit world This was condemned in the Old Testament in the Bible, and is condemned now by the Church, even if someone claims to only contact “good” spirits with it.

There is a communion of saints, of course, and we can and should pray to God for our deceased loved ones, (and they can pray for us), but we are not allowed to try to contact the spirits of the dead through a medium. We should trust in God’s goodness and mercy rather than seeking to know what we have no right to know.

As the Bible says, you know a tree by its fruits, and this person is doing something that has been condemned as evil in the Bible and by the Church. Satan is a liar, and can appear as “an angel of light”. “Messages” received from the dead through spiritism are a fraud, whether a fraud by the “medium” or a fraud by Satan.

Also, if you have never met her in person, you do not really even know her. She may be mentally ill (in which case she may not be responsible for what she is doing). Or she may be lying. And as I said before, she may not even be who she claims to be and is simply trying to find out information about people and where they live.

I would strongly recommend that you stop communicating with this person, and that you stop reading and believing mediums.

 

[NoNameMe78]

I do believe that animals do have souls. I had a pet long time ago, that I purchase from a lady who raised this pet from a colt. The pet would not board easily when sold and after I gotmy new pet home, I noticed for a long time it looked like my pet was crying. I truely believe my pet missed his/her previous owner.
I now have another pet and she has been extremely helpful after my loved one’s died. She cuddled with me and layed on the bed with me at night where I could reach down and pet her. She was an immense comfort.

 

[AidanM32]

A “past life reader” and getting in touch with deceased people through a person supposed to be able to contact them sounds a lot like spiritism to me. It used to be known as “necromancy”. Spiritism supposedly gets in touch with the dead through a certain person called a “medium” supposedly able to communicate with the spirit world This was condemned in the Old Testament in the Bible, and is condemned now by the Church, even if someone claims to only contact “good” spirits with it.

There is a communion of saints, of course, and we can and should pray to God for our deceased loved ones, (and they can pray for us), but we are not allowed to try to contact the spirits of the dead through a medium. We should trust in God’s goodness and mercy rather than seeking to know what we have no right to know.

As the Bible says, you know a tree by its fruits, and this person is doing something that has been condemned as evil in the Bible and by the Church. Satan is a liar, and can appear as “an angel of light”. “Messages” received from the dead through spiritism are a fraud, whether a fraud by the “medium” or a fraud by Satan.

Also, if you have never met her in person, you do not really even know her. She may be mentally ill (in which case she may not be responsible for what she is doing). Or she may be lying. And as I said before, she may not even be who she claims to be and is simply trying to find out information about people and where they live.

I would strongly recommend that you stop communicating with this person, and that you stop reading and believing mediums.

I see what you are saying, but she seems like a real nice person, and i don’t think she is mentally ill… she could have cancer etc (but hopefully not).
My anut was saying that you shouldn’t believe in all that, she said “don’t believe in where there getting it from” but just read it and take nothing real in. She was showing me a line in the “Gods Calling” book about this whole medium thing!

But God made this person, and loves this person, why would God give her the gift when, it is a bad thing? Who give her this?

 

[Robintrinket]

I see what you are saying, but she seems like a real nice person, and i don’t think she is mentally ill… she could have cancer etc (but hopefully not).
My anut was saying that you shouldn’t believe in all that, she said “don’t believe in where there getting it from” but just read it and take nothing real in. She was showing me a line in the “Gods Calling” book about this whole medium thing!

But God made this person, and loves this person, why would God give her the gift when, it is a bad thing? Who give her this?

You don’t really even know that she *has *a gift. There is no way of knowing the “messages” are real. There are all kinds of mental illnesses, and you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell if she has one. Sure, whoever this person is, God made and loves her, even if she is doing something wrong. I don’t think God would give someone the “gift” of being a medium. Some mediums are frauds themselves, making things up, others invoke devils, in which case the devils are the frauds. In both cases, the messages are not real. And what is really scary is that someone who dabbles in spiritism can invoke devils without even knowing they are doing it.

Also, as I’ve said before, you can’t really know too much about someone you’ve met online. Even someone you met in person can “seem like a real nice person”, and really not be. There are serial killers, etc., who no one ever suspected and everyone thought of as nice people. If you email and talk to this person on Twitter, you don’t even know for certain that this person is a woman. Certainly be cautious of anyone you meet online, and don’t give them any personal information or tell them where you live.

 

[armalanon]

Wasn’t so sure where to put this thread. Anyway…

I beleived, and still pretty much do, that animals don’t have souls. However, I was visiting this school for kids discerning the priesthood (a boarding school) and the kids got into a discussion about whether animals have souls.

Which got me thinking.

I have absolutely no evidence for or against it. So I was thinking if any of you all could shed some light on the subject. While you’re at it, do animals have feelings?

Thanks to all.

 

[AidanM32]

You don’t really even know that she *has *a gift. There is no way of knowing the “messages” are real. There are all kinds of mental illnesses, and you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell if she has one. Sure, whoever this person is, God made and loves her, even if she is doing something wrong. I don’t think God would give someone the “gift” of being a medium. Some mediums are frauds themselves, making things up, others invoke devils, in which case the devils are the frauds. In both cases, the messages are not real. And what is really scary is that someone who dabbles in spiritism can invoke devils without even knowing they are doing it.

Also, as I’ve said before, you can’t really know too much about someone you’ve met online. Even someone you met in person can “seem like a real nice person”, and really not be. There are serial killers, etc., who no one ever suspected and everyone thought of as nice people. If you email and talk to this person on Twitter, you don’t even know for certain that this person is a woman. Certainly be cautious of anyone you meet online, and don’t give them any personal information or tell them where you live.

Hi.

Thanks for you advice. All she knows as that i live in Ireland and i know she lives in Scotland.
I do and don’t think it is wrong. But where is she getting this information, she give me a reading and she new my grandmothers name, and that my mum’s brother used to plant bluebells… etc. She knew all that. But she can’t be a fraud. But am i not suppose to believe it but… i don’t know!

.,

 

[Robintrinket]

Hi.

Thanks for you advice. All she knows as that i live in Ireland and i know she lives in Scotland.
I do and don’t think it is wrong. But where is she getting this information, she give me a reading and she new my grandmothers name, and that my mum’s brother used to plant bluebells… etc. She knew all that. But she can’t be a fraud. But am i not suppose to believe it but… i don’t know!

.,

That is weird. But keep in mind that devils also know things about people and have supernatural powers. I have read that there is some phenomena that happens in spiritism that hasn’t been explained. There is, as I said before, a connection between spiritism and diabolical possession, so it is likely that these occur from from the devils’ powers. The way in which the devils are a fraud is they use their supernatural abilities to deceive people, but the “messages” from the deceased loved ones are not real.

As I said before, I don’t think that God would give someone a “gift” to do something that seems to be spiritism. And we know from the Catholic Church that spiritism is wrong, dangerous, and sometimes connected to devils. You have no way of knowing this person’s ability is from God, and it seems to me that it would not be. You certainly can’t believe everthing a person claims. She may “seem to be a nice person” but keep in mind that someone who invokes devils would not neccesarily *seem *evil. And even if someone did have such a “gift” from God, (though I don’t think anyone would) you would not be obliged to seek out this person and use it.

 

[JReducation]

As I said before, there are charlatans out there who if not work with evil, certainly border dangerously close. There are also people who do have legitimate psychic powers. These do not border on evil or are involved with evil. They do not have to invoke evil to know things. It comes to them very spontaneously. I’m thinking of the psychics and empaths that work with the police and with mental health professionals. Some empaths and psychics are saints. These gifts do not interfere with their journey to holiness.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[AidanM32]

That is weird. But keep in mind that devils also know things about people and have supernatural powers. I have read that there is some phenomena that happens in spiritism that hasn’t been explained. There is, as I said before, a connection between spiritism and diabolical possession, so it is likely that these occur from from the devils’ powers. The way in which the devils are a fraud is they use their supernatural abilities to deceive people, but the “messages” from the deceased loved ones are not real.

As I said before, I don’t think that God would give someone a “gift” to do something that seems to be spiritism. And we know from the Catholic Church that spiritism is wrong, dangerous, and sometimes connected to devils. You have no way of knowing this person’s ability is from God, and it seems to me that it would not be. You certainly can’t believe everthing a person claims. She may “seem to be a nice person” but keep in mind that someone who invokes devils would not neccesarily *seem *evil. And even if someone did have such a “gift” from God, (though I don’t think anyone would) you would not be obliged to seek out this person and use it.

Hello again,
I see what you are saying, I was just curious because as you know psychics always ask for money, and she charged nothing. So thats it. Thanks for your great advice i will know in future to stay away from psychics.

Thanks.
Aidan.

 

[StAnastasia]

And quite frankly, even when I was a Catholic, I didn’t want to be in a heaven that didn’t admit my dogs! I always found it impossible to believe that a benevolent god would exclude such innately loving creatures from eternal bliss.

Of course they have souls. Everything has soul proportional to its level of neurological endowment. Let God decide how this works out in eternity.