We can only urge you to keep to what you say, and that you defend your hope before those who insult and blaspheme the Christian name. Don’t let anyone’s muttering turn you aside from your expectation of future blessings. All those who blaspheme our Christ because of these adversities are the tail of a scorpion. Let us place our egg beneath the wings of that hen in the Gospel who cries out: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ... how many times I have wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks, and you were unwilling” (Mt 23:37). ... That hen is divine Wisdom which took flesh so that she could be like her chicks. Look at the hen with her bristling feathers, her drooping wings, with that cracked and clucking, weak and tired voice, and see how much she resembles her chicks. Let us place our egg, our hope, beneath the wings of that hen. (Augustine, Sermon 105, 11; PL 38, 623)