[From the descendants of Alexander’s officers] there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome.

Brothers and sisters: You know how one must imitate us.

Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen?

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,/ when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,/ and the day that is coming will set them on fire,/ leaving them neither root nor branch,/ says the Lord of hosts./ But for you who fear my name, there will arise/ the sun of justice with its healing rays.

When peaceful stillness compassed everything/ and the night in its swift course was half spent,/ Your all-­powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne/ bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,/ bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree./ And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;/ he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.

All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God,/ and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is,/ and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;/ But either fire, or wind, or the swift air,/ or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water,/ or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods./ Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods,/ let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these;/ for the original source of beauty fashioned them./ Or if they were struck by their might and energy,/ let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them./ For from the greatness and the beauty of created things/ their original author, by analogy, is seen./ But yet, for these the blame is less;/ For they indeed have gone astray perhaps,/ though they seek God and wish to find him./ For they search busily among his works,/ but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair./ But again, not even these are pardonable./ For if they so far succeeded in knowledge/ that they could speculate about the world,/ how did they not more quickly find its Lord?

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Then he said to his disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

In Wisdom is a spirit/ intelligent, holy, unique,/ Manifold, subtle, agile,/ clear, unstained, certain,/ Not baneful, ­loving the good, keen,/ unhampered, beneficent, kindly,/ Firm, secure, tranquil,/ all-powerful, all-seeing,/ And pervading all spirits,/ though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle./ For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion,/ and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity./ For she is an aura of the might of God/ and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty;/ therefore nought that is sullied enters into her./ For she is the refulgence of eternal light,/ the spotless mirror of the power of God,/ the image of his goodness./ And she, who is one, can do all things,/ and renews everything while herself perduring;/ And passing into holy souls from age to age,/ she produces friends of God and prophets./ For there is nought God loves, be it not one who dwells with Wisdom./ For she is fairer than the sun/ and surpasses every constellation of the stars./ Compared to light, she takes precedence;/ for that, ­indeed, night supplants,/ but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.