Orthodox Calendar

Sunday, May 6, 2029
Samaritan Woman; Holy Greatmartyr, Victorybearer and Wonderworker George

No Fast

Scripture Readings

Scripture Readings

Isaiah 43.9-14 (Vespers, St George)

9All the nations are gathered together, and princes shall be gathered out of them: who will declare these things? or who will declare to you things from the beginning? let them bring forth their witnesses, and be justified; and let them hear, and declare the truth. 10Be you⌃ my witnesses, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you⌃ may know, and believe, and understand that I am he: before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none. 11I am God; and beside me there is no Saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved; I have reproached, and there was no strange god among you: you⌃ are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God, 13even from the beginning; and there is none that can deliver out of my hands: I will work, and who shall turn it back? 14Thus says the Lord God that redeems you, the Holy One of Israel; for your sakes I will send to Babylon, and I will stir up all that flee, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships.

Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Vespers, St George)

1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. 5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. 6As gold in the furnace has he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. 7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. 8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. 9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he has care for his elect.

Wisdom of Solomon 4.7-15 (Vespers, St George)

7But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest. 8For honorable age is not that which stands in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. 9But wisdom is the gray hair to men, and an unspotted life is old age. 10He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated. 11Yes speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit decieve his soul. 12For the bewitching of naughtiness does obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence does undermine the simple mind. 13He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: 14For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. 15This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he has respect to his chosen.

John 20.1-10 (7th Matins Gospel)

1Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him!”

3Therefore Peter and the other disciple went out, and they went toward the tomb. 4They both ran together. The other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he didn’t enter in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying, 7and the cloth that had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb also entered in, and he saw and believed. 9For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

Acts 11.19-26, 29-30 (Epistle)

19They therefore who were scattered abroad by the oppression that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews only. 20But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. 22The report concerning them came to the ears of the assembly which was in Jerusalem. They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch, 23who, when he had come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they should remain near to the Lord. 24For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and many people were added to the Lord.

25Barnabas went out to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they were gathered together with the assembly, and taught many people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. 29As any of the disciples had plenty, each determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea; 30which they also did, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 12.1-11 (Epistle, St George)

1Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly. 2He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. 3When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. 4When he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him. 6The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

7And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off his hands. 8The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision. 10When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

11When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”

John 4.5-42 (Gospel)

5So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered 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.”

11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”

13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”

16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”

26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

27Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” 28So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” 30They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

31In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

33The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already. 36He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

John 15.17-16.2 (Gospel, St George)

17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another. 18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me, hates my Father also. 24If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. 25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. 27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

1“I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Commemorations

Holy Glorious Great-martyr, Victory-bearer and Wonderworker George (303)

“George, this truly great and glorious Martyr of Christ, was born of a father from Cappadocia and a mother from Palestine. Being a military tribune, or chiliarch (that is, a commander of a thousand troops), he was illustrious in battle and highly honored for his courage. When he learned that the Emperor Diocletian was preparing a persecution of the Christians, Saint George presented himself publicly before the Emperor and denounced him. When threats and promises could not move him from his steadfast confession, he was put to unheard-of tortures, which he endured with great bravery, overcoming them by his faith and love towards Christ. By the wondrous signs that took place in his contest, he guided many to the knowledge of the truth, including Queen Alexandra, wife of Diocletion, and was finally beheaded in 296 in Nicomedia.” (Great Horologion) The Empress Alexandra, along with a pagan priest who confessed Christ due to George’s witness, were executed together with the Great Martyr. St Alexandra is commemorated on April 21/May 4.

Neither the Great Horologion nor the Prologue, nor the Church’s services to St George, mention the most popular story of St George, his slaying of a dragon. Though many icons of the Saint show him mounted on horseback, slaying a dragon with a spear, the story is thought by many to be legendary, and the dragon in the icon symbolic.