Praying with Ciara

Last month, my family's two dogs were sprinkled with holy water and blessed at a pet blessing ceremony at St. Columbkille.

This month, one of those dogs is praying.

And she appears to have a special devotion to our Blessed Mother.

Let me explain how this development has come about:

Our family has a custom of praying a Hail Mary before the kids' sports games. We pray for safety and sportsmanship for all involved, for a good game for the team and in particular for our child or any teammate who would benefit from a good performance, for the souls of everyone at the game, and for a victory, if it be God's will. After the "Hail Mary" we end with a traditional team prayer for Catholics: "Our Lady, Queen of Victory, pray for us!"

In our family, one person shouts the first part, the address to Mary. And the others shout back even louder "pray for us!"

Well with all the yelling, our dog Ciara gets a little excited. And a while back she began barking with everyone during the "pray for us!" response. At first the perfectly timed barking seemed like a fluke, and we just chuckled at it. But now she appears to have become conditioned to that response, barking the prayer more frequently with us.

Now she barks with other, similar prayers. I often ask my kids to pray a "Hail Mary" with me before I go to work, for a peaceful night. And we end with "Our Lady, Queeen of Peace, pray for us." No yelling involved.

Just earlier this week when my son Peter and I prayed, invoking the Queen of Peace calmly, Ciara chimed in on cue. A couple days later I tested her alone, with dog treat in hand, shouting "Our Lady, Queen of Victory ..." And "Roh, roh, roh, roh, roh!" was her response. (She prays kind of like Scooby Doo.)

A little background on this dog should be noted:

One night a few years ago, missing a beloved dog that had died, I prayed for another dog, not completely sure if that was a wise prayer. The very next day, at a family gathering, my niece brought three mixed-breed puppies, two in need of a good home. And of course, my children begged for one.
Normally I might have objected, knowing the messes puppies make. But it appeared we were getting a gift from God, so how could I refuse? They had the choice of a dark female puppy or her lighter-colored brother. They chose the girl.

Once we got home we had the task of naming the dog, and each child had certain qualities they wanted in the name. One asked for a current, up-to-date name. Another wanted the literal meaning of the name to reflect something about the dog. Another preferred a saint's name. So we started searching baby names, reading aloud several suggestions. Each was rejected until we came upon Ciara, pronounced "keera."

The name is currently popular; and in its original Irish Gaelic, Ciara means "dark-haired." But we really knew we had the right name when we learned that Ciara is a feminine form of Ciaran, the name of an Irish saint who befriended St. Columbkille.

So perhaps our dog was destined to become saintly and pray. Certainly like all creatures, she was designed to give glory and praise to the Creator.

Now we just need to train her to evangelize.

Then she can teach our younger dog, Laika, to pray.

Inspired by the Year of Faith, Susan Szalewski began writing weekly columns for us. Although that year is over, we liked them so well that we asked her to keep writing. Thankfully, she said yes. So watch for these on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.