Introduction to the Devout Life: Third Part--Chapter 8

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, we are going to dive into one of the things I struggle with the most and that is anger.  Anger is an emotion that I've struggled since I can remember. I have gotten better, I will say that, but it's a work in progress. Early on in my life when people would try to tell me that my anger was getting the better of me, I would get angry and tell them, "This is just who I am, okay? I can't change this about myself."  But, that was a cop-out. The truth was, was that I didn't really want to work on it because it had become a coping mechanism and it made me feel powerful. Once I started to realize that it was hurting my husband and others I loved, I knew that I needed to own up and admit that, to be angry or not, is within my control.  There are times when we should and must have righteous anger, otherwise we are indifferent to evil and that is never good. However, we must never let our anger control us and we must learn to not get angry all the time when we don't get our way, or someone irritates us, or we feel slighted in someway. Too much anger poisons the blood.  Working on meekness as opposed to anger is our topic for today, so, let's turn to Chapter Eight of the Third Part.