When anger comes

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.  Frederick Buechner

_____________________________________________

O Lord

some days I am amazed

I read of angry men

and angry women

who amaze me with their words

their acts

and yet

who in the end

harm themselves as much as others

I think of people I know

angry and entrenched in their bitterness

holding on to events long past

immersed in the pain of

enmity

I think of countries who act much the same

Countries who for thousands of years

Have held fast

To old grudges

And would rather shoot than talk

I see people

I see countries

Destroying those around them

And

Destroying themselves

I think

How foolish!

And yet Lord

I know there are within me

Ravenous wolves of anger

That prowl

And growl

And feast on my soul

Lord

Remind me that sometimes

the skeleton at the feast is me

and help me to forgive

____________________________________________

Forgive us our debts (sins) as we forgive our debtors (those who have sinned against us)