Wednesday, March 26

Worship: Noon, soup meal follows; 7 pm, soup meal at 6 pm.

Reading: John 4:5-42

“Sir, give me this water so that I may never be thirsty.” John 4:15

If you look at Orthodox icons of Jesus and the woman at the well, you see that the woman is occasionally shown with a nimbus, the gold circle around the head which is a sign of holiness and divine energy. In the Eastern Orthodox church, the Samaritan woman at the well has been given a name, Saint Photini, the “enlightened one,” and is “equal to the apostles,” because she believed and went to tell others about the Christ she had encountered. Her story continues. It is said she was baptized along with her five sisters and two sons, traveled to Carthage to share the story of Jesus Christ, and eventually traveled to Rome, where she was martyred by the emperor Nero. Her feast day is February 26, and a church dedicated to her has stood for centuries at Nablus in the West Bank, traditional site of Jacob’s well.

“By the well of Jacob, O holy one,

Thou didst find the Water of eternal and blessed life;

And having partaken thereof, O wise Photini,

Thou wentest forth proclaiming Christ, the Anointed One.”

(Megalynarion for St. Photini)

Living God, give us the Living Water that we may never thirst.  Amen

• Skip a cup of coffee today. Set aside the money saved for an act of love.