Overcoming Sinful Anger Quotes

“If we think of ourselves as a nothing, as a servant of all those we meet (as did St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thérèse of Lisieux), we will embrace the hurts and humiliations we endure as splinters of the cross we must bear for Christ. These are sacrifices that we can joyfully accept as offerings to save souls, including our own.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“The truth is that someone else may well have done something wrong, and our feeling of anger may well be his fault. But our blowing our stack is not his fault. It’s our own fault. We are not like animals, which, when provoked, have no choice but to react violently. When we feel angry, we have a choice to act either rationally or irrationally. Only one of these reactions qualifies as a Christian one. So it would be incorrect to say, “He made me lose my cool.” Rather, he made me angry, and I chose to lose my cool. We are responsible for what we do.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“We can suppress our anger; or we can express it by sabotaging the efforts of those who caused it; or we can express it in an irrational tirade of bad words and insults; or we can express our anger rationally — or at least process it rationally. If we merely suppress an angry feeling, it will go down into our subconscious and wait for a chance to explode. And it will explode. It is better to do something constructive with it.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“St. John wrote, “Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5). Clearly there is a sense in which we have not overcome the world. The world is a mess. In another sense, however, we have overcome the world if we are so focused on Christ that the world can’t get to us any longer.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“If we embrace our crosses rather than cursing them, we do share in Christ’s work of redemption.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“Unforgiveness is the main culprit behind anger. And worse, unforgiveness increases our chances of getting heart disease and cancer.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“St. Jerome is said to have had an irascible personality. He made so many enemies in Rome by his nasty criticisms that his enemies tried to bring him down. He had to flee Rome to get away from their treachery and eventually ended up in Bethlehem, where he began to live a life of penance. Even there, however, he got into heated exchanges of ideas with his (former) friend Rufinus and with the Pelagians. Although he often alienated people by his harsh wit, Jerome was known for being always ready to seek pardon for his temper. Pope Sixtus V once remarked, regarding a picture of Jerome beating his breast with a stone, “You do well to carry that stone, for without it the Church would never have canonized you.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“God’s Will Also, when people pray hard for something and don’t get it, they sometimes get angry at God. It seems we think we can manipulate God with our prayers, and if we pray hard, we think he must provide whatever we ask for. God answers every prayer, but sometimes the answer is no. And, if it is no, we’re better off — if we love God. That’s why Jesus wants us to say, “Thy will be done” in the Our Father. That is the sure way to happiness — the will of God. This belief is an essential part of our Christian faith. Some go through a short-lived frustration with God. The Scriptures seem to allow for that. But the person who stays angry at God betrays a lack of knowledge of God. If we have an intimate relationship with him, there is no way we can become angry at him, because we have a deeply intuitive knowledge of his goodness and his personal concern for our happiness.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine. From the desire to be esteemed, deliver me. From the desire to be honored, deliver me. From the desire to be praised, deliver me. Teach me to accept humiliation, contempt, rebukes, being slandered, being ignored, being insulted, being wronged, and being belittled. Jesus, grant me the grace that others be admired more than I; that others be praised and I unnoticed; that others be preferred to me in everything; that others be holier than I, provided I become as holy as I should; that I might imitate the patience”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“If you have a problem with exploding anger and you want to be a Christian, you absolutely must work hard to overcome it. You cannot simply say, “Well, that’s me,” if you want to be friends with the Lord. Granted, perhaps most angry outbursts are not mortal sins because sufficient reflection is absent. But choosing not to strive ardently to overcome hateful outbursts is usually done with full knowledge and deliberate consent of the will and so could well be a mortal sin.4 As with many serious sins, if we are really trying to overcome them, we can be close to God. If we are not trying, we can’t.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“I am often surprised to discover Christians who pray ardently, who receive the sacraments regularly, who even attend Mass daily, and yet have an anger problem. “If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26). Some even say, “Well, if you’re [of ethnicity X], you’re going to get angry a lot.” Not so! Rather, if you’re a Christian, you will work very hard to find a way to cut back on your anger dramatically. For the real Christian, it’s not where we’re from that counts the most, but where we would like to go one day. Explosive anger is not something you want to have with you when you leave this planet.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“Sometimes we just have to live with an injustice, and if we bear it patiently, we gain a great deal of grace. A cousin of this spiritual work of mercy is to forgive all injuries. If we can make habits of this and of bearing injustices patiently, we will be well on our way to real holiness.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger

“Forgiveness is one of the most fundamental things we are called to practice as Christians. Unforgiveness is an indication that we are not truly in touch with our faith: if we are Christian, we forgive. Must we forgive immediately? No, but we shouldn’t delay too long to begin the process. It may take time, but in the end, we must do it.”
― Fr. T. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger