Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New; Martyr Irenarchus and Seven Women Martyrs at Sebaste; Martyr Timothy and his Companions at Tiberiopolis

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.

As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, ³⁸saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”

³⁹Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

⁴⁰He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”

⁴¹When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, ⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³For the days will come on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”