HYMN Flow River Flow
OPENING PRAYER
GOSPEL John 4:5-15,19b-26,40-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him. When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
What word or phrase speaks to you? Challenges you? Comforts you?
SILENCE/REFRAIN
The Gospel is read a second time.
MEDITATION
Dehydration. It can cause a lot of problems for us: headaches, brain fog, dry eyes
and skin, indigestion, irritability, poor memory, confusion, rapid heart rate, and the list goes on! Water not only quenches our thirst, it keeps us alive! The woman at the well experienced a kind of “spiritual dehydration,” and it was Jesus, the true living water, that quenched her thirst for healing, wholeness, and new life. Most of us have had periods of spiritual dryness, when we find ourselves experiencing a spiritual fog, or confusion, or pain. During desert times it’s as if we are wondering about, and we don’t even know where to look for or how to encounter the life-giving water that is Jesus. But Jesus always finds us, saying, “Give me a drink.” He calls us out of the barren desert and gives us the life-giving water that we need to reach out to a broken world refreshed, made whole, and filled with Gospel joy.
REFLECTION, SUNG REFRAIN
CONTEMPLATION
Let us continue to sit with this Gospel, allowing Jesus to meet us where we are.
Let us drink in the life-giving water that heals us, that quenches our thirst for wholeness, that sustains us for life. Let us open our hearts to Jesus’ voice.
SILENT REFLECTION, SUNG REFRAIN
LORD’S PRAYER AND CONCLUSION
CONCLUDING PRAYER
“But whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Lord,
when
you declare to
a woman at the well
everything about her life,
we think of our own lives as well.
You know each
of our ins and outs too,
when we sit and when we stand.
when we
yearn for light, love, beauty and peace, for
worship of you in Spirit and truth.
Still, often we remain dry!
Come, Lord Jesus,
quench our thirst
for life within
you
living water.
Copyright © 2023, Anne M. Osdieck. All rights reserved. St. Louis University Sunday Website.
Reflections written by Karen Kane, Director of Pastoral Care, Mt. Notre Dame Health Center