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.”

But he who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵“When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house. ¹⁸Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes. ¹⁹But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days! ²⁰Pray that your flight will not be in the winter nor on a Sabbath, ²¹for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. ²²Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.

²³“Then if any man tells you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There!’ don’t believe it. ²⁴For false christs and false prophets will arise, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.

²⁵“Behold, I have told you beforehand.

²⁶“If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; or ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it. ²⁷For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. ²⁸For wherever the carcass is, that is where the vultures gather together.