Sunday of the Samaritan Woman - 5/10/26
The fifth Sunday of Pascha, May 11th, is also known as the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. According to church tradition, the holy Martyr Photina was the Samaritan Woman, with whom the Savior conversed at Jacob’s Well (John. 4:5-42).
During the time of the emperor Nero (54-68), who displayed excessive cruelty against Christians, Saint Photina lived in Carthage with her younger son Joses and fearlessly preached the Gospel. She was eventually tortured and killed by Nero in the year 66.
On this day, we also remember the following saints:
Apostle Simeon the Zealot (1st c.)
St. Simon, Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal’ (Kiev Caves-Near Caves—1226)
Martyrs Philadelphus, Cyprian, Alphius, Onesimus, Erasmus, and 14 others, in Sicily (3rd c.)
Martyr Hesychius of Antioch (4th c.)
Bl. Isidora the Fool, of Tabenna in Egypt (4th c.)
Bl. Thais (Taisia) of Egypt (5th c.).
Read more about the lives of these and others commemorated this day here.
Readings for Sunday, May 10th:
-
9
For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!
11
To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
12
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
13
being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.
14
I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
15
For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16
Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
-
54
When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
55
Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
56
And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”
57
So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”
58
Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
-
19
Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.
20
But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.
21
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
22
Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.
23
When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
24
For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
25
Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
26
And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
29
Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.
30
This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
-
5
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6
Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8
For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
12
Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
18
for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
27
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
29
Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?
30
Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31
In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32
But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33
Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
35
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
36
And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37
For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38
I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
39
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
40
So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41
And many more believed because of His own word.
42
Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.