Sunday
All things cry for forgiveness in their imperfection, their incompleteness, their woundedness, their constant movement toward death. Mere rage or resentment will not change any of these realities.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
Do we retreat into our despair, into the smallest parts of our hearts, or do we dare to lift our gaze and reach out through the dark, holding fast to one another and standing in love?
—Valarie Kaur
Tuesday
Rage, when consciously harnessed, is a force that connects us with our power to fight for others, and for ourselves.
—Valarie Kaur
Wednesday
If we believe God is angry in the way that humans are, then it’s too easy for us to end up being angry “without limit.” Isn’t this, in fact, much of our experience today?
—Richard Rohr
Thursday
If we move the way rage wants us to move, we will cause harm to ourselves and others. So when we go to take action, we must first intentionally return to love. Rage informs us about what we love, and love moves us to act in ways only love knows.
—Meggan Watterson
Friday
For Abraham Joshua Heschel, marching for voting rights was a holy act, an embodied devotional response to God’s ongoing call for dignity and equality. Rather than turn away in rage or despair from engagement with non-Jews, Heschel became a champion of racial justice and interreligious cooperation.
—Or Rose
Week Thirty Practice
A Blessing for Our Anger
As we seek to learn from the wisdom our anger has to teach us, Brian McLaren offers this prayer of blessing:
May you be blessed to see in your anger, not just a danger, but an opportunity. May you be blessed to see in your anger a window into what you love. May you be blessed to see in your anger a pathway into sadness. And may your sadness sweeten your anger until it is transformed into the energy of love.
May you come to see indifference, complacency, apathy, and self-centeredness within you as signs—not of your lack of anger, but of your lack of love.
May you welcome anger as a source of information about what you love, about what needs protection and repair, and about the courage and strength needed to make this world a more joyful and peaceful place.
May your anger lead you to sadness, and may your sadness lead you to love, so that you meet the tears of things with a heart of bottomless compassion.
May you be angry about what deserves anger, and may you experience such a transformation of your own anger that you become an agent of loving transformation in our world.
May the deep wisdom of God guide you deep into your anger so that you may join with Jesus in weeping for the world, and so that you groan with the creative Spirit in the loving labor pains of a better tomorrow.
Reference:
Adapted from Brian McLaren with Richard Rohr and Valarie Kaur, “What Do I Do with My Anger?” virtual event, Center for Action and Contemplation, March 14, 2025. Unavailable.
Image Credit and inspiration: Ricardo IV Tamayo, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Cuba, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Together, we hold the flowering of compassionate action, remembering our shared humanity and deep connection to one another and all of creation.
