I would like to hear from the readers of Kirishtan.com.
Your questions and comments are welcome here.
Luke O.
11 thoughts on “Readers’ Discussion”
I created this comments page because I need my readers’ feedback. Please post your thoughts about Kirishtan.com, any of the articles or books therein, or anything else you want to discuss in this realm.
Thanks, and may God bless you and your loved ones.
I am happy to have found this website. The story of the Japanese Martyrs needs to spread. Their faith is so inspiring.
What a wonderful website, it is so inspiring to read of these Martyrs, who died by the grace of God died for their faith. Thankyou for remembering these great brave Christians and telling their stories.
I am brand new here, and just skimmed one article of yours.
First of all, thank you so much for what you are doing here. If I ever feel called to talk here in Wichita concerning my personal faith journey, I may have to read carefully what you have written first.
For you and I have a common yet heretofore unknown bond.
Your conversion happened while you were in Japan.
A major experience of my spiritual journey occurred for me in Kansas while reading Shusaku Endo’s “The Samurai”. . .the result being becoming a missionary to Japan and falling in love with their language and the good that can be found in their culture.
Admittedly, we come from different angles. Yet my favorite Saint became Thomas Kasaki, shown by my e-mail address [hidden by L.O.].
I do though want to ask you what you thought of the movie “Silence”, since it does relate to those times .
Thank you. I hope to hear from you.
Thomas DiMattia
p.s. – I would like to buy your two books directly from you. The publishers imo get too much of the profit to make it worthwhile for most people to write.
Thank you for your interest and your comments, Thomas. The boy Thomas Kozaki, or Kasaki, gave history an outstanding example of manly courage–samurai courage, if you will–in the face of persecution, grueling adversity, and eventual martyrdom.
Unlike you, I was indeed converted in Japan, and not by human inspiration, but by direct supernatural intervention in response to an anguished prayer. This at least started it.
Endo’s fiction spans a broad panorama of the Japanese soul in history. I was particularly moved by Umi to Dokuyaku, though I could not lose myself in either Silence or The Samurai. Private nitpicks that I would not dare fling at the reputation of a world-renowned writer like Endo Shusaku.
More later. You will note that I have hidden your email address. If you want it in public view here on this page, let me know.
Thanks again. Much obliged for your input.
Luke O.
Thank you for creating this website, it’s very good to learn about chirstianity in Japan, even tho it’s very low there, there are still good martyr stories. Japanese culture indeed has many good things that should be looked up to, and the people are very beautiful. By the way, were you born there or did you emigrate?
I am thrilled to have discovered you and your work just now. I ordered Of Love and Union and will check in again after reading it. Japan has been in my heart for a couple of decades now. I hope to go there in the next couple of years.
Thank you for your interest, Wendy. The novel opens with a gory but historically-accurate battle scene whose theme is central to my overall message; I hope it doesn’t put you off.
If you are Catholic (or even if you’re not) and love Japan, I would recommend getting to know the Japanese martyrs and asking for their intercessory prayers. I was granted countless miraculous graces in Japan in the course of my martyrological pilgrimages, phenomena that most likely came through their intercession.
Luke
i am so inspired by the martyrs of japan and feel so horrible for there tortures they endured. may they always be with christ and mary now until forever amen.
What’s your beef with Endo’s “Silence”. He lays out the reasoning of the protagonist, for his “apostasy “, an apostasy which really isn’t. The other tortured Christians couldn’t endure, and had already apostatized… like some 3rd century Roman Christians, they were weak, and yet the Lord is all merciful. The Church has condemned Novationism, and it appears you tend towards that. ‘ Glory to God! Jesus wants our brutal deaths, otherwise we suffer even more forever in Hell if we can’t endure!’ This makes the Lord far worse than even Stalin. I think that’s what Endo Shusaku was trying to get at. Don’t mistake your personal passionate conversion experience or the historical martyrs, for the path every believer has to tread.
And why did the Vatican promote the Silence movie?
A Catholic in Japan.
Dear Patrick,
I read your comments with puzzlement, particularly your charge that I apparently subscribe to Novatianism, i.e., the impossibility of forgiveness for one who has apostatized.
Where do you find that in my writings?
Incidentally, “Silence” the movie was not made by Endo, but rather by Martin Scorcese. Endo wrote the novel, in which he opened with a glaring historical error or two. That frankly appalled me, given that he had a rich trove of historical texts at his fingertips — a collection that I drooled over, so to speak, while visiting the museum at Sotome dedicated to him. I sorely wished I myself could have had such a collection.
Again, where do you find in my writings an outright condemnation of Scorcese’s “Silence”? I found it quite powerful, if ahistorical in places.
But as I support free speech, I have posted your comments. God be with you,
I created this comments page because I need my readers’ feedback. Please post your thoughts about Kirishtan.com, any of the articles or books therein, or anything else you want to discuss in this realm.
Thanks, and may God bless you and your loved ones.
I am happy to have found this website. The story of the Japanese Martyrs needs to spread. Their faith is so inspiring.
What a wonderful website, it is so inspiring to read of these Martyrs, who died by the grace of God died for their faith. Thankyou for remembering these great brave Christians and telling their stories.
I am brand new here, and just skimmed one article of yours.
First of all, thank you so much for what you are doing here. If I ever feel called to talk here in Wichita concerning my personal faith journey, I may have to read carefully what you have written first.
For you and I have a common yet heretofore unknown bond.
Your conversion happened while you were in Japan.
A major experience of my spiritual journey occurred for me in Kansas while reading Shusaku Endo’s “The Samurai”. . .the result being becoming a missionary to Japan and falling in love with their language and the good that can be found in their culture.
Admittedly, we come from different angles. Yet my favorite Saint became Thomas Kasaki, shown by my e-mail address [hidden by L.O.].
I do though want to ask you what you thought of the movie “Silence”, since it does relate to those times .
Thank you. I hope to hear from you.
Thomas DiMattia
p.s. – I would like to buy your two books directly from you. The publishers imo get too much of the profit to make it worthwhile for most people to write.
Thank you for your interest and your comments, Thomas. The boy Thomas Kozaki, or Kasaki, gave history an outstanding example of manly courage–samurai courage, if you will–in the face of persecution, grueling adversity, and eventual martyrdom.
Unlike you, I was indeed converted in Japan, and not by human inspiration, but by direct supernatural intervention in response to an anguished prayer. This at least started it.
Endo’s fiction spans a broad panorama of the Japanese soul in history. I was particularly moved by Umi to Dokuyaku, though I could not lose myself in either Silence or The Samurai. Private nitpicks that I would not dare fling at the reputation of a world-renowned writer like Endo Shusaku.
More later. You will note that I have hidden your email address. If you want it in public view here on this page, let me know.
Thanks again. Much obliged for your input.
Luke O.
Thank you for creating this website, it’s very good to learn about chirstianity in Japan, even tho it’s very low there, there are still good martyr stories. Japanese culture indeed has many good things that should be looked up to, and the people are very beautiful. By the way, were you born there or did you emigrate?
I am thrilled to have discovered you and your work just now. I ordered Of Love and Union and will check in again after reading it. Japan has been in my heart for a couple of decades now. I hope to go there in the next couple of years.
Thank you for your interest, Wendy. The novel opens with a gory but historically-accurate battle scene whose theme is central to my overall message; I hope it doesn’t put you off.
If you are Catholic (or even if you’re not) and love Japan, I would recommend getting to know the Japanese martyrs and asking for their intercessory prayers. I was granted countless miraculous graces in Japan in the course of my martyrological pilgrimages, phenomena that most likely came through their intercession.
Luke
i am so inspired by the martyrs of japan and feel so horrible for there tortures they endured. may they always be with christ and mary now until forever amen.
What’s your beef with Endo’s “Silence”. He lays out the reasoning of the protagonist, for his “apostasy “, an apostasy which really isn’t. The other tortured Christians couldn’t endure, and had already apostatized… like some 3rd century Roman Christians, they were weak, and yet the Lord is all merciful. The Church has condemned Novationism, and it appears you tend towards that. ‘ Glory to God! Jesus wants our brutal deaths, otherwise we suffer even more forever in Hell if we can’t endure!’ This makes the Lord far worse than even Stalin. I think that’s what Endo Shusaku was trying to get at. Don’t mistake your personal passionate conversion experience or the historical martyrs, for the path every believer has to tread.
And why did the Vatican promote the Silence movie?
A Catholic in Japan.
Dear Patrick,
I read your comments with puzzlement, particularly your charge that I apparently subscribe to Novatianism, i.e., the impossibility of forgiveness for one who has apostatized.
Where do you find that in my writings?
Incidentally, “Silence” the movie was not made by Endo, but rather by Martin Scorcese. Endo wrote the novel, in which he opened with a glaring historical error or two. That frankly appalled me, given that he had a rich trove of historical texts at his fingertips — a collection that I drooled over, so to speak, while visiting the museum at Sotome dedicated to him. I sorely wished I myself could have had such a collection.
Again, where do you find in my writings an outright condemnation of Scorcese’s “Silence”? I found it quite powerful, if ahistorical in places.
But as I support free speech, I have posted your comments. God be with you,
Luke