Martyrs Adrian and Natalia; Vladimir Icon; Our Holy Father Tithoës of the Thebaid (4th c.)

But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: ³³partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions, and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. ³⁴For you both had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. ³⁵Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. ³⁶For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. ³⁷“In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. ³⁸But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

¹⁴“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter. ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

¹⁶“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ ¹⁹You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it. ²²He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.