Msgr. Robert Ritchie, the Rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, with his 15-year-old dog, Lexington (r.) and a model named Lexington II, the first representation of a dog in the St. Patrick's Cathedral nativity scene in more than 30 years
Posted on 03/07/2012 5:59:27 AM PST by khelus
Msgr. Robert Ritchie — and the flock at St. Patrick’s Cathedral — have lost their best four-legged friend.
Lexington, the beloved yellow Lab who been a gentle presence at the cathedral for more than 15 years, and who was the inspiration for the new dog statue in the Christmas Nativity scene, died Monday.
Ritchie was recovering from knee surgery when his companion passed away peacefully. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Doggy ping
Msgr, plenty of pooches at the pound who would love a new home.
I made sure to buy a dog for my own nativity scene.
In before the first poster to comment that since dogs don’t have souls they can’t go to heaven? How’d that happen?
I love the idea of a doggie figure in that Nativity Scene! Doggies have been loyal shepherds for millenia. And the Shepherds were the FIRST to get the announcement of The Birth of Jesus.
Monseigneur, hurry...go to the pound or lab Rescue and give another doggie a good home!
And many dogs in no-kill rescue organizations as well.
Don’t get me started on that one... I always wondered if God wanted us to have the afterlife be a true paradise would we not only out previously arriving family and friends, but be with the 4-leggers we had a bond with? My wife being Orthodox Christian, and me from a Protestant background... Our son goes to Saturday Orthodox School, and one of the priests told him exactly that (animals have no souls). This provided an interesting discussion. We told our son to listen to the Father re: Jesus, but quietly disagree on the animals in heaven part..
Plants have the simplest soul for it drives them to grow. Animal souls possess that property plus the ability to act in some degree according to their own inclinations. However, it is the soul of man that has all those properties plus the ability to know God. That's what sets humanity apart.
Does that get Lexington into heaven? I don't know. Someone posted months ago since God wants you to be eternally happy with him in heaven, if having your beloved canine companion with you was intrinsic to that happiness, then God would certainly permit it.
I don’t know the Lord’s will regarding dogs in Heaven, but anything for Him is possible.
Smiles.... Believe me... My current four-leggers in my house, 3 dogs and a cat, are each individual souls... They might not have the capacity to know God, but He knows them... And I think that is the key.
It is in the Bible that animals will be in Heaven. They will not be carnivorous, nor poisonous, but they will be there.
And, I kinda think Father, God likes animals...He made so many of them after all.
I believe there are our four-leggers in the afterlife. Plz read my earlier comments again if I was not clear.
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