THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
SUNDAY, MARCH 8TH, 2026
INTRODUCTION
In today’s gospel the Samaritan woman asks Jesus for water, an image of our
thirst for God. Jesus offers living water, a sign of God’s grace flowing from the
waters of baptism. The early church used this gospel and those of the next two
Sundays to deepen baptismal reflection during the final days of preparation
before baptism at Easter. As we journey to the resurrection feast, Christ comes
among us in word, bath, and meal—offering us the life-giving water of God’s
mercy and forgiveness.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Merciful God, the fountain of living water, you quench our thirst and wash away
our sin. Give us this water always. Bring us to drink from the well that flows with
the beauty of your truth through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
FIRST READING
EXODUS 17:1-7
Because the thirsty Israelites quarreled with Moses and put God to the test,
Moses cried out in desperation to God. God commanded Moses to strike the rock
to provide water for the people. The doubt-filled question—“Is the Lord among us
or not?”—received a very positive answer.
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed
by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no
water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give
us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do
you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people
complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us
and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord,
“What shall I do for this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord
said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel
with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will
be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water
will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the
elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the
Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
PSALM
PSALM 95
(Response) Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. (Ps. 95:1)
1 Come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving
and raise a loud shout to the Lord with psalms.
3 For you, Lord, are a great God,
and a great ruler above all gods.
4 In your hand are the caverns of the earth;
the heights of the hills are also yours.
5 The sea is yours, for you made it,
and your hands have molded the dry land.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
(Response) Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. (Ps. 95:1)
7 For the Lord is our God, and we are the people of God’s pasture
and the sheep of God’s hand.
Oh, that today you would hear God’s voice!
8 “Harden not your hearts,
as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert.
9 There your ancestors tested me,
they put me to the test, though they had seen my works.
10 Forty years I loathed that generation, saying,
‘The heart of this people goes astray; they do not know my ways.’
11 Indeed I swore in my anger,
‘They shall never come to my rest.’ ”
(Response) Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. (Ps. 95:1)
SECOND READING
ROMANS 5:1-11
Though we often hear that God helps those who help themselves, here Paul tells
us that through Jesus’ death God helps utterly helpless sinners. Since we who had been
enemies are reconciled to God in the cross, we now live in hope for our final salvation.
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we
also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does
not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a
good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely,
therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved
through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been
reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Lord, you are truly the Savior of the world; give me this living water that I may never thirst again. (John 4:42, 15)
GOSPEL READING
JOHN 4:5-42
Jesus defies convention to engage a Samaritan woman in conversation.
Her testimony, in turn, leads many others to faith.
5 [Jesus] came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that
Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out
by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a
drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman
said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her,
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’
you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The
woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you
get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us
the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of
the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will
become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said
to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep
coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman
answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now
is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir,
I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but
you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said
to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is
coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and
those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to
him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will
proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with
a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with
her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to
the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!
He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he
said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples
said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus
said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his
work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell
you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The
reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that
sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One
sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s
testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans
came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It
is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for
ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
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