Our Holy Father Amphilocus, Bishop of Iconium (395); Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum; Dionysios, Patriarch of Constantinople

Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers; ²the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.

³Honor widows who are widows indeed. ⁴But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. ⁵Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day. ⁶But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives. ⁷Also command these things, that they may be without reproach. ⁸But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

⁹Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, ¹⁰being approved by good works, if she has brought up children, if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, and if she has diligently followed every good work.

Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation; ²¹neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.”

²²He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Don’t go away or follow after them, ²⁴for as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part under the sky, shines to another part under the sky, so will the Son of Man be in his day. ²⁵But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.