Almost every person has owned a pet at one time or another in life or known someone who has. In all world religions, animals serve as spirit guides; there is spirituality to animal and human dialogue. Animals have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian--a book whose contents are in alphabetical order--explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of creatures, which serve as spirit guides in all world religions and help humans experience the divine. The author explores animal spirit guides in the Bible, The Quran, The Dhammapada, The Rig Veda, The Analects of Confucius, stories from Aesop and Grimm, and much more. In these pages you can explore bears and bees, eagles and elephants, ravens and roosters, tadpoles and turtles, and many more. For each of the thirty-two entries, the author presents a text identifying the animal spirit guide, a reflective study, a question for journaling or personal meditation, and a concluding prayer. The spiritual life can be nourished in many ways; in this book it is enhanced by animal spirit guides. ""Boyer's Abecedarian is a very interesting, intelligent survey of how animals appear in a variety of religious and other narrative texts. The book combines detailed research, clear prose, and thoughtful commentary in a single work that highlights the religious significance and spiritual value of animals in the human world."" --Stephen C. Berkwitz, Professor of Religious Studies, Missouri State University ""This book is a fitting addenda to Pope Francis' Laudato Si, summoning us to our primitive duty to care for creation (Gen 2:15), aware, as the Psalmist says, that the 'earth is the Lord's' (Ps 24:1), 'with all that is within it' (Deut 10:14). A delight for pet lovers everywhere, and a touching reminder of how the animals--from A to Z--enrich and bless our lives "" --Pauline Nugent, CCVI, Professor, Classics and Biblical Hebrew, Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Missouri State University ""Mark's latest book offers an informative and inspiring intersection for those who appreciate animals, multiple religious perspectives, and personal spiritual reflection. These reflections look through a lens we rarely have presented to us, but one that we who have animal companions intuitively know--that 'animals tell us about ourselves and about the divine' (Boyer). --Lora Hobbs, Senior Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, Missouri State University Mark G. Boyer--editor, author, retired priest, and college instructor--has been writing books on biblical and liturgical spirituality for thirty years. As an editor, he won over twenty journalism awards; as an author, he has penned forty-four volumes; as a retired priest, he has served as pastor--even founding a new parish--and as a mission director; as college instructor, he has taught courses in Bible and film at Missouri State University, Springfield, for almost thirty years. This is his seventh Wipf and Stock title.