Thanks for your good wishes!
Dear friends, thank you for all the outpouring of good wishes I received for my name day and birthday on August 20th.
And to express my gratitude, I'm sharing this image I discovered in the English-language online breviary. It's "Christ Embracing Saint Bernard (of Clairvaux)" by the Spanish painter Francisco Ribalta, painted between 1625 and 1627.
We're accustomed to images of Saint Bernard with the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus, whose sweetness reminds us that Saint Bernard was called the "mellifluous doctor." But this Doctor of the Church, "sweeter than honey," begged Christ every day to share in His sorrows (see Adrienne Von Speyr). This was the source of his sweetness.
Italian
English