Does divine providence include animals?

The answer

The scholar Origen says, “God manifestly watches over the movement of the heavens and the stars and over all the animals and plants of all kinds that on the earth and in the sea through His divine art are brought to perfection in birth, development, nourishment and increase. So it would clearly be absurd for us to close our eyes to this and not to look to God.”⁵²⁸

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty

Notes

⁵²⁸ Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom 1.4 (ACW 19:144).

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Catechism of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Volume 1, Books 1–3. First English Edition, 2023. Published by St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Sporting, Alexandria, and Queen St. Mary & Prince Tadros Coptic Orthodox Church, South Brunswick, NJ. Copyright © 2023. Translation and Editing: Youth of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Arabian Gulf, and Egypt.