MAY 20, 2012 - "QUENCHING A TRUE "THIRST""

Once while passing through the city of Sychar, a weary Christ sat at the town well while His Apostles went to buy food. Interestingly enough, Jesus struck up a conversation with a woman. This in itself would have been frowned upon, but the fact that Jesus spoke to a SAMARITAN woman certainly would have caused a great stir among the Jews. Before their extensive verbal exchange was completed, however, she fully understood that she has been speaking to the Messiah: the One Who can offer her "living water." Because Jesus was thirsty that day, parched soul was spiritually quenched.

The tradition of the Church is that this Samaritan Woman was later baptized and given the "PHOTINI" meaning "THE ENLIGHTENED ONE." As the Evangelist John's Gospel tells us" "Many of Samaritans of the city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified: 'He told me all that I had ever done.'" Along with her two sons and five daughters, Photini went to Carthage, where she preached the Good News of Christ's Resurrection. They were soon arrested and taken to Rome, where the Emperor Nero placed the men in prison and had Photini and her daughters enslaved in his imperial court. Photini and her family were tortured relentlessly by the evil ruler. Still, their faith never wavered, and their examples caused others to convert to Christianity as well. Eventually, Photini and her children were all martyred. Ironically, Photini met her end by being thrown down a well, refusing to renounce the Savior she had met at well many years before.