St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; Ven. Nilus of Stolobensk; The Martyrs of Africa, who suffered during the Vandal persecution (429 and following)

Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. ²For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, ⁴that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, ⁵not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, ⁶that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. ⁷For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. ⁸Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, ¹⁰for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; ¹¹and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you, ¹²that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, ⁶“As for these things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”

⁷They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

⁸He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them.

¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. ²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath to this people. ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.