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.”

Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. ²He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, ³“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow. ⁴As he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. ⁶When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.” ⁹He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”