The Father loveth the Son: and He hath given all things into His hand.

He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.-(St. John iii.)

When, about this time, some dissension and doubt sprang up among the Pharisees about Our Lord and St. John the Baptist, He withdrew into Galilee. In this He teaches us, as He always did, how infinitely He values the virtue of humility; He, the Master and Teacher of the world, Who came from Heaven, purposely to teach, and to preach the Gospel, withdraws from the great cities, and leaves St. John, His servant and creature, to preach instead; but although He withdrew from great multitudes, and the brilliant assemblies of learned Doctors and Pharisees, His Sacred Heart was still thirsting for souls; He sat by the Well of Jacob on His journey, and converted a poor sinner of Samaria; He asked her for some water, and she refused; this was because the Jews and Samaritans had always

been at enmity, ever since the time of Jeroboam, who took away ten tribes, and made the schism of Samaria. After he had taken away the ten tribes captive, the Assyrian king, Salmanassur, had also sent heathen Babylonian colonists to live near Samaria, who had led the Samaritans into mixing up a still more sad and shameful idolatry with the worship of the true God. They never went up to Jerusalem to adore Him, as He had commanded in the Temple, but set up a schismatic temple, on Mount Garizim, of which the woman spoke.

When, therefore, Jesus understood that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples, and baptized more than John,

(Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but His disciples,) He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee.

And it was necessary He should pass through Samaria.

He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar; near the piece of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give Me to drink.

(For His disciples were gone into the city to buy food.) Then that Samaritan woman saith to Him: How dost Thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman ? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, give Me to drink; thou, perhaps, wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water.

The woman saith to Him: Sir, Thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep: from whence then hast Thou living water?

Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle ?

Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this

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water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst for ever.

But the water that I shall give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.

The woman saith to Him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.

Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered, and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband:

For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly.

The woman saith to Him: Sir, I perceive that Thou art a Prophet.

Our Fathers adored on this mountain: and You say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.

Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem adore the Father.

You adore that which you know not: we adore that which Iwe know: for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorer shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father also seeketh such to adore Him.

God is a Spirit: and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith to Him: I know that the Messias cometh (Who is called Christ): therefore, when He is come, He will tell us all things.

Jesus saith to her: I am He, Who am speaking with thee. And immediately His disciples came: and they wondered that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest Thou, or why talkest Thou with her?

The woman, therefore, left her water-pot, and went away into the city, and saith to those men:

Come, and see a Man Who hath told me all things that ever I did. Is not He the Christ?

eat.

Then they went out of the city, and came to Him.

In the meantime the disciples prayed Him, saying: Rabbi,

But He said to them: I have food to eat which you know not of.

The disciples, therefore, said one to another: Hath any man brought Him anything to eat?

Jesus said to them: My food is to do the will of Him That sent Me, that I may perfect His work.

Do not you say, there are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest.

And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto everlasting life; that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together.

For in this is the saying true: that it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth.

I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.

Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him, for the word of the woman giving testimony, that He told me whatsoever I have done.

So when the Samaritans were come to Him, they desired Him that He would stay there. And He stayed there two days. And many more believed in Him because of His own word. And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.-(St. John iv.)

Herod Antipas, the king, or nominal king under the Romans, cast St. John the Baptist into prison, because St. John had boldly reproved him for his sinful life. Our Lord was then at Nazareth.

But Herod the tetrarch, when he was reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

He added this also above all, and shut up John in prison. -(St. Luke iii.)

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and the fame of Him went out through the whole country. And He taught in their synagogues, and was extolled by all.

And He came to Nazareth where He was brought up: and He went into the synagogue, according to His custom on the sabbath day; and He rose up to read:

And the book of Isaias the prophet was delivered unto Him. And as He unfolded the book, He found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: wherefore He hath anointed me, to preach the gospel to the poor He hath sent me, to heal the contrite of heart,

To preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward.

And when He had folded the book, He restored it to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

And He began to say to them: This day is fulfilled this scripture in your ears.

And all gave testimony to Him: and they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth, and they said: Is not this the Son of Joseph?

And He said to them: Doubtless you will say to Me this similitude: Physician, heal Thyself: as great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum, do also here in Thy own country. And He said: Amen, I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country.

In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months: when there was a great famine throughout all the land:

And to none of them was Elias sent, but to a widow at Sarepta of Sidon.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.

And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger.

And they rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they brought Him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong.