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misery in the world. It is a vice in which an
animal passion in man is permitted to dominate his words and actions as if he possessed neither
reason nor free will. In the brute animals, anger is directed by instinct to
the purposes of self-defense and self-preservation, as exemplified when a
brute fights for food, or against an enemy, or in defense of its young. In man,
anger is also designed by nature to be a means of self-defense and self-preservation
 but, like all the passions, in him it is meant to be under the complete control of reason and
free will. This means that even in a man who possesses
merely natural virtue, all motivations to anger must be trained to submit to the judgment of
reason, and that the will be permitted
to act, not on the suggestion of anger but on
the judgment of reason. A man who possesses supernatural virtue has all the teachings of faith to
assist his judgment in deciding against the impulses of anger.

Anger, therefore, as a vice, is the habit of acting as the passion dictates without subjecting
it to reason or faith. One who habitually acts thus, indulging in intemperate words and
vicious actions, places himself below the level of the brutes. Brutes are guided at least by
instinct. Reason is to take the place of that instinet in man, and when it is abandoned
there is nothing left but blind and selfish force

I. MORTAL SINS

1. Have I deliberately permitted myself to become so violently angry that it destroyed my reason
for a time and made me incapable of acting like a human being?

2. Have I hurt others seriously in anger?

3. Have I knowingly and deliberately made others angry to a point where they were bereft of reason?
 

4. Have I planned revenge against others, looking for an opportunity to do serious harm to them?

5. Have I actually taken revenge by doing serious harm, e.g., by ruining a persons 's business, by
destroying his reputation, by stealing?

6. Have I permitted anger against others to become hatred, so that I wished them serious misfortune
and refused to speak to them for a considerable length of time?

7. Have I refused to forgive others who had wronged me and who asked for forgiveness in a direct or
indirect way?

8. After causing another to show signs of hatred for me, have I refused to show by any sign that I
wanted to be forgiven?

9. Have I induced others to hate their neighbors by working on their anger and providing motives
for continued hatred?

10. Have I, through jealousy of others, deliberately tried to destroy a good work that they were
doing or to hamper it seriously?


II. VENIAL SINS

1. Have I taken part in petty quarrels and bitter arguments?

2. Have I given in to sudden spurts of anger by harsh words, by calling names, by abusive language?

3. Have I shown dislike and antipathy for others by snubbing them, by being sarcastic toward them,
or by any unkindness?

4. Have I given in to moods of sullenness and moroseness towards others?

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