So often we think that it is words as sharp and cold as icicles that will sink the deepest. But really, it is love sown through kindness and respect that opens hearts.

Let's re-imagine a key scene from the gospels together, shall we?

The gathered crowd shouted in a frenzy of righteous indignation. Shouts of "stone her" and "kill the b__" rose into a cacophonic haze of hatred that all centred on the one young woman, barely clothed, who trembled in terror on the rough ground at their centre.

The Teacher started making his way through the crowd, and when men and women saw the look on his face, they fell back from his path in silence, wondering what he was going to do.

The woman squinted up at him, too, wondering what new terror was upon her.