Sunday Readings

Apostolic Reading – Acts 11:19-30

Gospel – John 4:5-42

Hymns: See our Church’s website for Audio Recordings: holycrossmelkite.org/hymns

Troparion of the Resurrection (Tone 4)

The Women disciples of the Lord heard from the Angels the joyful news of the resurrection and casting away the ancestral sentence, they announced with pride to the Apostles Death is vanquished, Christ God is risen! and has bestowed great mercy upon the world

 Troparion of Mid-Easter Season (Tone 8)

At the middle point of this festive season, give my thirsty soul to drink from the waters of true worship, for You called out to all men and said: “Whoever is thirsty, let Him come to me and drink.” O Christ God, fountain of Life, glory to You!

Troparion of the Holy Cross (Tone 1)

O Lord save your people and bless your inheritance, granting peace to the world; and protect your community by the power of your Cross.

Kondakion of Pascha (Tone 2)

Though You went down in the tomb, O immortal One, You overthrew the power of Hades and rose victorious, O Christ God. You greeted the ointment bearing women, saying “Rejoice!” You gave peace to Your apostles, and to those who had Fallen resurrection.

Prokimenon

How great are your works O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all.

Stichon

Bless the Lord, O my soul! You are very great indeed, O Lord my God!

Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (11:19-30)

In those days when the disciples were dispersed by the persecution that had broken out over Stephen, they went all the way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none but the Jews. But some of them were Cypriots and Cyreneans, and as they reached Antioch, they were speaking to the Greeks, announcing the Good News of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. And word concerning them came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch. And when he got there and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to stay in the Lord with steadfast hearts: for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great multitude was added to the Lord. And Barnabas traveled to Tarsus, looking for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. And it happened that for a whole year they took part in the church meetings and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.” Now in those days some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus got up and revealed through the Spirit that a dire famine was threatening the whole world — and it occurred during the reign of Emperor Claudius. And so, the disciples decided to send relief to the brethren living in Judea — each one as much as he could afford — and this they did, sending it to the presbyters by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

Alleluia  

String your bow, go forth, reign for the sake of truth, meekness and righteousness, and your right hand shall lead you wonderfully.

Stichon

You loved righteousness and hated iniquity: therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of joy above your companions.

The Holy Gospel According to St. John the Evangelist (4:5-42)

At that time Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sichar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, wearied as he was from the journey, was sitting at the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a Samaritan woman to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink,” for his disciples had gone away into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, although you are a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman?” For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to, her. “If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no pail, and the well is deep. Where can you get living water from? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and drank from it, himself, and his sons, and his flocks?” In answer Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He, however, who drinks of the water I will give him shall never thirst; but the water I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, or come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have said well, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. In this you have spoken truly.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (who is called Christ), and when he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak with you am he.” And at this point his disciples came; and they wondered that he was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you seek?” or “Why do you speak with her?” The woman therefore left her water-jar and went away into the town, and said to the people, “Come and see a man who has told me all I have ever done. Can he be the Christ?” They went out from the town and came to meet him. Meanwhile, his disciples begged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has someone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Well, I say to you, lift up your eyes and behold that the fields are already white for the harvest. And the one who reaps receives a wage, and gathers fruit unto life everlasting, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For herein is the proverb true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ I have sent you to reap that on which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, “He told me all I have ever done.” When, therefore, the Samaritans had come to him, they begged him to stay there; and he stayed two days. And far more believed because of his word. And they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you have said, for we have heard for ourselves and we know this is in truth the Savior of the world,” the Christ.