Rhetoric, the art of giving finely crafted and persuasive speeches, is often condemned. The paradox about condemnations of rhetoric, however, is that the best of them are themselves finely crafted speeches, great examples of precisely what they apparently condemn. There is something of that in Jesus’ praising the Father for hiding these things from the learned and the clever, and revealing them to little ones: Isn’t he also clever and obviously learned in the way he uses and

Jesus sometimes speaks words that can sound severe, even shocking, and this Gospel is no exception. “Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me.” At first hearing, we might almost want to step back from them. Surely the Lord does not ask us to love our families less? Surely the Gospel does not make us cold, harsh, or indifferent to those closest to us? Of course not. Christ does not destr

The year is 1630, and a Dominican friar is writing home. Fr Dominic Ibáñez de Erquicia has been preaching the Christian mission in Japan for the last seven years or so. He arrived in Japan in answer to the call for more missionaries, after Tokugawa’s persecution had depleted their numbers: our brother Dominic was thirty-three. Now forty, Fr Dominic sees that the persecution is reaching a new level. Whereas before, he was able to disguise himself as a merchant to visit Cat