Devotion of the day: say prayers in honor of the Innocents, tested on the passion of anger

The effects of anger. It is easy to start fire, but how hard it is to put it out! Refrain, as far as you can, from getting angry anger blinds and leads to excesses! ... Did the experience not make you touch it with your hand? Herod, disappointed by the Magi who never returned to give him news of the born King of Israel, trembled with anger; and, cruel, he wanted revenge! Kill all the children of Bethlehem! - But they are innocent! - What does it matter? I want revenge! - Did anger never drag you to avenge yourself?

The innocent martyrs. What a massacre! How much desolation was seen in Bethlehem in the bursting of the executioners, in tearing the babies from the wombs of weeping mothers, in killing them before their eyes! What heartbreaking scenes in the conflict between the mother who defends the child, and the executioner who snatches it from him! The innocent, it is true, suddenly won Paradise; but in how many houses the anger of a man brought desolation! It is always like this: the anger of an instant produces many troubles.

Disappointed Herod. Quieting the passing moment of anger and relieving ourselves with insults, a very vivid horror of the fact arises in us, and a shame of our weakness. It is not so? We are disappointed: we have looked for an outlet, and instead we have found remorse! Why, then, get angry and let off steam a second and third time? Herod was also disappointed: that Jesus he was looking for escaped the massacre and fled to Egypt.

PRACTICE. - Recite seven Gloria Patri in honor of the Innocents: examined on the passion of anger.