Book of Daniel
2:31-45.
"In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying
in appearance as it stood before you.
The head of the
statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze,
the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile.
While you looked at the statue, a stone which was hewn from a mountain
without a hand being put to it, struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in
pieces.
The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all
crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer, and the wind blew them away
without leaving a trace. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the
whole earth.
"This was the dream; the interpretation we
shall also give in the king's presence.
You, O king,
are the king of kings; to you the God of heaven has given dominion and strength, power and
glory;
men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever
they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all; you are the head of
gold.
Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior
to yours, then a third kingdom, of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth.
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; it shall break in
pieces and subdue all these others, just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything
else.
The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter's
tile and partly of iron, mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness
of iron. As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,
and
the toes partly iron and partly tile, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly
fragile.
The iron mixed with clay tile means that they
shall seal their alliances by intermarriage, but they shall not stay united, any more than iron
mixes with clay.
In the lifetime of those kings the God
of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people;
rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand
forever.
That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn
from the mountain without a hand being put to it, which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze,
silver, and gold. The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future; this is
exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure."
Book of Daniel
3:57.58.59.60.61.
Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above
all forever.
Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise
and exalt him above all forever.
You heavens, bless the
Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.
All you
waters above the heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.
All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above
all forever.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21:5-11.
While some people
were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, he
said,
All that you see here--the days will come when there
will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.
Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign
will there be when all these things are about to happen?"
He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am
he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them!
When you
hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will
not immediately be the end."
Then he said to them,
"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome
sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.
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