Homily for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

On Prayer in Spirit and in Truth

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

A certain elder said: “As sight is greater than all the senses, so prayer is greater than all good works” (Paterikon, ch. 22).

Christ is risen!

Beloved faithful,

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, coming into the world and ever thirsting for the salvation of human souls, journeyed through the regions of Palestine and came also to a city of Samaria, which at that time was called Sychar. There, by His boundless providence, He arranged to meet a woman from that city at Jacob’s well. In speaking with her, by His ineffable wisdom, He brought her to the knowledge of the truth, and among the other secret teachings He gave her, He also spoke about true worship offered in spirit and in truth, saying to her: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).

Since today’s sermon concerns prayer offered in spirit and in truth, let us see what it means to pray in spirit. To pray in spirit means to raise our mind and soul to God during prayer. Only prayer made with the mind (nous) from the depths of the heart can truly be called spiritual prayer, that is, prayer offered in spirit.

What does it mean to pray in truth? It means to pray through the true practice of all the divine commandments, that is, of all good works, because man is twofold, being composed of soul and body. When the mind rises invisibly to God during prayer, while the body, which is the visible part, labors in fulfilling the commandments of God, then the Christian becomes a true worshiper of God in spirit and in truth.

No one can pray in spirit and in truth if he prays only with his mind and does not also labor bodily in fulfilling the commandments of God, for the commandments of God are the truth, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, which says: “All Your commandments are truth” (Psalm 118:86).

But even if someone practices the commandments of God and prays with the mind from the heart, he still cannot have God near him unless he also possesses the right faith and confesses Him through his words and deeds according to the apostolic teaching of the Orthodox Church. This is shown to us by the Holy Spirit when He says: “The Lord is near unto all that call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 144:18).

Prayer in the spirit, or in spirit, is noetic prayer, that is, secret prayer which a person performs with the mind (nous) within the heart. When we pray with great faith and reverence, and when, by the grace of God, the thoughts of the mind become united with the feelings of our heart during prayer, and our eyes pour forth tears, then we pray in spirit and in truth, that is, from the heart. This is the highest level of Christian prayer.

When we hear the great Apostle Paul saying, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (1 Corinthians 14:15), let us understand that he is speaking here about prayer in spirit and in truth, which is the same as spiritual prayer performed by someone with the mind (nous) in the heart.

Likewise, when we hear the Savior saying, “But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6), we should understand that He is speaking about the secret and noetic prayer that a person performs with the mind (nous) in the chamber of the heart.

The same lofty prayer is spoken of by the Holy Apostle Paul when he says: “I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).

The Psalmist also exhorts us to this, saying: “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.” The wise Solomon tells us the same thing when he says: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Song of Songs 5:2). For when prayer is planted in our heart by the Holy Spirit, it causes the heart to pray unceasingly, according to the command given by the great Apostle Paul, who said: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

With this spiritual prayer of the heart the Psalmist David also prayed, saying: “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will seek Your statutes” (Psalm 118:145).

With this prayer made in spirit prayed Hannah the prophetess, being sorrowful, “speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard” (1 Samuel 1:13).

With this prayer Moses prayed when the people were in danger during the Exodus from Egypt, and although no one heard his prayer, God, attending to the words of his heart, said to him: “Why do you cry to Me?” (Exodus 14:15).

With this prayer made in spirit, the Most Holy and Most Pure Virgin Mary herself prayed in the Holy of Holies for twelve years, being guided in this by the Holy Spirit Himself.

These trustworthy testimonies from Holy Scripture and from the Holy Fathers concerning prayer in spirit, that is, concerning the spiritual prayer of the heart mentioned above, are enough to encourage us also to pray to God day and night with the mouth, with the mind, and especially with the heart.

If we preserve the Orthodox faith faithfully and are faithful children of the Orthodox Church, and if we know that the commandments of God are truth, according to the Psalmist’s words: “Your law is truth” (Psalm 118:142), then let us worship God in spirit and in truth, that is, with the mind (nous) descended into the heart, and from there let us raise prayers to God, because “the heart is the chamber of the nous,” as Saint Isaac the Syrian says.

But we must also strive bodily to fulfill the commandments of God, just as the Savior commanded His disciples, teaching them “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

Who would dare to believe that he can pray in spirit and in truth without also practicing all good works? Such a person is like one who says he can fly with only one wing or walk with only one leg.

Beloved faithful,

Up to this point we have spoken briefly about holy prayer, about how we should pray to God in spirit and in truth. I was encouraged to speak about this because of the Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel, who, although a pagan, asked Jesus Christ at Jacob’s well where and how one should pray (John 4:19–24).

Let us see who this woman was and how she was won by the Savior for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Samaritan woman, together with all the inhabitants of the province of Samaria, belonged to a kind of sect of the Old Testament, separated from the Temple in Jerusalem and accepting only the first five books of Moses. Because of this, there was an old hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans, so much so that they would not even speak to one another. This is why she at first refused to give water to the thirsty Savior, Who had said to her: “Give Me to drink!”

Besides her false belief, the Samaritan woman was also sinful in her life, for she had previously lived in immorality with five men and was now with a sixth. Yet, although she was heretical in faith and immoral in deeds, she awaited the coming of the Savior into the world, thirsted for the “living water” of faith in Christ, and wanted to know how to pray truly to God.

Let us now see how the Lord drew this pagan and sinful Samaritan woman to the faith.

First, the Lord promised the woman “living water,” that is, the teaching of the holy gospel. And after the woman believed in the saving power of the gospel, she said to the Savior with a humble and pleading voice: “Lord, give me this water, so that I may not thirst again” (John 4:15).

Thus the words of the Lord, touching the Samaritan woman’s heart like an arrow, awakened faith in her soul. But for her salvation, right faith in God alone was not enough. She also needed good works, because “faith, if it has not works, is dead” (James 2:17).

And how did the Lord turn the heart of the sinful woman toward humility and repentance? Through confession. With only a few words, and with great spiritual wisdom, the Savior stirred her conscience to confess her own sins. For after He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here,” the Samaritan woman confessed: “I have no husband.” In other words: I am a sinful woman. I lived in immorality with five men, and now I live unlawfully with another!

Do you see how Christ draws our souls onto the path of salvation? Do you see how great the power of confession is? The Savior asks of us only two principal virtues: strong faith in God and repentance, that is, the confession of our sins with contrition and the renewal of life through good works.

The Samaritan woman fulfilled both of these, for she believed that Christ was the Messiah, the Savior of the world; she acknowledged her sins; and she asked for the “living water,” that is, Christian baptism, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the gospel.

But she did not stop there. She sought to add another good work, one obligatory for all of us, for every Christian: the confession and proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Running to her family and to her native town, the city of Sychar, she went through all the streets crying out for everyone to hear: “Come and see a Man Who told me all that I have done. Could this be the Christ?” And the people went out of the city and came to Him (John 4:29–30).

Do you see how one sinful woman managed to bring an entire city to faith in Christ? If all our mothers and faithful believers would boldly confess the word of the gospel in their homes and families, could they not bring at least their children and spouses to church on feast days or to confession during the holy fasts? Yet how little our faithful fulfill this duty!

But the Samaritan woman did not stop there either. As we read in the Lives of the Saints on February 26 and in the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church, she was baptized in the name of the Most Holy Trinity and received the name Photini. Together with her were baptized her sons Josiah and Photinos, and her sisters Photis and Phota.

Then, burning with zeal for Christ, they all went to Carthage and from there to Rome, courageously preaching the word of the gospel and converting many to believe firmly in Christ. When the Roman emperor Nero heard of this, he threw them all into prison and tortured them cruelly. Then, seeing that none of them renounced Christ, he ordered that they be beheaded. Their memory is celebrated on February 26.

Beloved faithful,

The conversation of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a lesson in Christian catechesis and a guide on the path of salvation for us all.

In this gospel, priests learn with what wisdom they must win the souls of people for eternal life, knowing that there is no craft greater or more difficult than drawing sinners to repentance.

In today’s Gospel, good Christians learn that the “living water,” which gives life through the Orthodox faith, and all the springs of salvation are found only at the fountain of life, which is the Church. Here Christ waits for us to come and worship, to pray and praise Him, to confess our sins and ask Him for forgiveness and salvation.

Here, in the Church, sinners speak about God, acknowledge their sins, confess, receive a rule of repentance, and wait with humility and hope for Holy Communion and the forgiveness of sins.

Here unbelievers and those with false beliefs are converted to the true faith like the Samaritan woman and ask Christ for the living water of faith.

Here, especially here in the church, we learn to pray in spirit and in truth; we learn to confess and weep over our sins; we learn humility and love for one another. Here we learn how we may convince and bring to Christ our brethren who lie in the darkness of sin and unrepentance.

In the Church we learn to confess Christ on earth, to pray in spirit and in truth, and to obtain eternal life.

Therefore let us come regularly to the Holy Church and labor zealously in the field of our salvation, knowing that there is no salvation outside the Church.

Behold, Christ awaits us at the well. He calls us to the Church. He teaches us to pray. He reveals Himself to us through the teaching of the Holy Gospel. He helps us cleanse ourselves of passions. He feeds and gives us drink with His Body and Blood from the holy chalice, and He gives us strength from above to repent.

Let us abandon sin and follow Christ so that we may be made worthy of His Kingdom unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Christ is Risen!

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.