Protherapeia (pro-ther-a-pei’-a): Preparing one’s audience for what one is about to say through conciliating words. If what is to come will be shocking, the figure is called prodiorthosis.
The years have gone by and we have had to say good-bye to so many murdered sisters and brothers chewed up and spit out dead or maimed by seemingly endless war—war without borders, war without shame, war without victory, war, war, war!
The world is engulfed by terror, hatred and horror. We cry for its wretched regions; ceaselessly flooded by the blood of the guiltless flowing deep red through the gates of hell thrown open by raging blasphemy shouting out His holy names.
Together we have stood our ground. Together we have pushed hard the stem the flood. Together.
And yet, as much as we have sacrificed, today it is my sad duty to tell you . . .
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Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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