Orthodox Devotional — Sunday, May 10, 2026

5th Sunday of Pascha: The Samaritan Woman

Tone 4 | No Fast

Feast & Commemorations

Primary Feast: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (Photini, Equal-to-the-Apostles) Also Commemorated:

• Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot
• Holy Martyrs Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprinus of Sicily (251)
• St. Isidora the Fool-for-Christ of Tabenna (4th c.)
• Blessed Thaïs (Taïsia) of Egypt (4th c.)

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! ☦️

The Paschal season does not let up. Five Sundays in, and the Church brings us to a well in Samaria — the place no respectable Jew would go, at the hour no respectable woman would come. And there, the risen and ever-living Christ waited. He is always waiting at the wells where we least expect Him.

Epistle Reading

Acts 11:19–26, 29–30

The Birth of the Church at Antioch — First Called “Christians”

Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.

Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.

Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judæa: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

📖 OSB Commentary Notes (Acts 11–12): The persecution that killed Stephen and scattered the Jerusalem church became the very engine of the Gospel’s expansion. What the enemy intended for destruction, the Holy Spirit turned to proclamation. The scattered believers — ordinary people, not appointed missionaries — preached wherever they landed. Antioch, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire, became the new center of gravity for the emerging Church. It was here, for the first time, that followers of the Way were called Christianoi — “Christ-people.” This was likely a term coined by outsiders, perhaps even mockingly, but the Church received it as an honor and a mission statement. Barnabas, “the son of encouragement,” saw the grace at work and didn’t manage it — he celebrated it, then went to find Saul. Sometimes the most important thing a leader can do is recognize what God is already doing and get out of the way.

Gospel Reading

John 4:5–42

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

📖 OSB Commentary Notes (John 4): The encounter at Jacob’s Well is one of the longest recorded conversations Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels. He crosses every boundary: Jew–Samaritan, man–woman, holy–scandalous. He comes to her in her weariness and shame — the sixth hour, the heat of the day, the hour when proper women are not at the well. The Church names her Photini, “the luminous one,” and calls her Equal-to-the-Apostles.

The “living water” (Greek: hydor zōn) is the Holy Spirit — the same water that flows from the side of Christ on the Cross, the same water of Holy Baptism. The Fathers note that the woman’s “five husbands” symbolize the five false gods of the Samaritans, the five books of Moses misunderstood apart from Christ, and perhaps the spiritual restlessness of a soul seeking something the world cannot give. Jesus does not condemn her history — He illumines it, names it, and offers her something that will never run dry.

“Worship in spirit and in truth” is the theological center of this Sunday. The old geography of worship — this mountain, that temple — is abolished. The risen Christ is the new Temple. Worship is now an interior orientation of the whole person toward the Father, made possible by the Spirit. This is not an abstraction; it is the deepest reality of every Divine Liturgy. We ascend not to Jerusalem or Gerizim, but into the life of the Holy Trinity itself.

She left her waterpot. That detail matters. She came for water and left behind the thing she came with, because she found something she didn’t come looking for. The evangelized become evangelists. The Samaritans who believed “because of her word” become a picture of every person who first hears the Gospel through a witness, and then comes to know Christ directly: “We have heard him ourselves.”

Vespers Epistle

1 John 3:21–4:6 | 4:11–16 | 4:20–5:5

God Is Love — Testing the Spirits

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

📖 OSB Commentary Notes (1 John 3–4): John’s First Epistle returns again and again to a simple, inescapable claim: God is love, and you cannot separate love of God from love of neighbor. The test of the spirits — “every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” — is not merely a doctrinal litmus test, though it is that. It is the Incarnation as the ground of all ethics. If God became flesh, then flesh matters. Neighbor matters. The brother you can see is the icon of the God you cannot see.

The OSB notes that John wrote into a world of Gnostics and Docetists who denied the Incarnation — spirits that seemed spiritual but were not of God. The test remains urgent. Any spirituality that makes us less loving, less present to actual human beings, less committed to embodied community — fails the test, regardless of how elevated it feels.

“God is love” (Greek: ho Theos agapē estin) is perhaps the most radical sentence in scripture. Not merely that God loves, but that love is what God is — that the very inner life of the Trinity is the eternal self-giving of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our love for one another is participation in that divine life, not imitation of it from the outside.

7th Matins Gospel

John 20:1–10

The Empty Tomb

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.

Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

This is the 7th Matins Gospel — one of eleven resurrection accounts read cyclically on Sundays. Peter and the Beloved Disciple run to the tomb. John arrives first, waits. Peter enters first, sees. John enters, sees and believes. The folded burial cloth is not the debris of a hasty escape — it is the unhurried sign of a Resurrection. A body that was stolen would not have left its grave clothes neatly behind. Something else entirely has happened here.

Today’s Saints

Simon the Zealot — Apostle, born in Cana of Galilee. The OSB tradition notes he may have been the bridegroom at the wedding of Cana, the site of Christ’s first sign (John 2). After Pentecost he carried the Gospel to Africa. He was granted the grace of dying by crucifixion, like his Lord.

Holy Martyrs Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprinus — Three brothers from a noble pagan family in southern Italy, sons of a Roman governor. Arrested for confessing Christ, subjected to successive tortures before multiple judges, finally martyred in Sicily during the reign of Licinius. Their relics were found incorrupt in 1517.

St. Isidora the Fool of Tabenna — A nun in Egypt who concealed her holiness beneath a mask of madness and degradation. She took the dirtiest jobs, lived on scraps, endured the contempt of her sisters. The ascetic Pitirim was shown by an angel that she was greater before God than he was. When honor came, she fled. She is a patron of those who suffer contempt in silence.

Blessed Thaïs of Egypt — A woman who had lived in luxury and then in sin, who heard an old hermit weeping for her and repented instantly. She followed him into the desert. Her sudden, wholehearted repentance was shown in a vision to be more pleasing to God than the long, shallow repentance of many hermits. She is a patron of anyone who fears their past is too much for God’s mercy.

Closing Reflection

This Sunday places before us an unlikely gallery of evangelists: a Samaritan woman with a troubled past who becomes the first missionary to her city; scattered, unnamed believers who carried the Gospel to Antioch simply because they could not stop talking about Jesus; and the Beloved Disciple who “saw and believed” on the evidence of folded linen.

And threaded through all of it, John’s refrain: God is love. The Samaritan Woman encountered Love sitting by a well. The first Christians at Antioch embodied that Love in practical relief sent to strangers in Judea. The saints remembered today — the noble martyrs who would not deny Him, the fool who hid her holiness, the repentant sinner who turned in an instant — all are variations on the same theme: the living water Christ offers runs through very ordinary, very complicated human vessels.

The fields are white to harvest. Leave your waterpot. Go tell them.

Glory to God for all things. Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! ☦️

Generated: 2026-05-10 | Source: orthocal.info API + OSB brain corpus