15th March 2020
Third Sunday of Lent Year A
Third Sunday of Lent Year A
John 4: 5–42 (abbreviated)
Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:
‘If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: “Give me a drink”, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.’
‘You have no bucket, sir’, she answered, ‘and the well is deep: how would you get this living water?’
Jesus replied: ‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again; the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside them, welling up to eternal life’.
‘Sir’, said the woman, ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water’.
Reflection - from Prego (St Beuno's Outreach)
(In this reflection we pray with only part of today’s Gospel. If you have opportunity, you may wish to spend me with the complete text later on.)
Once I have settled my mind and body to pray in the manner that suits me best, I slowly read the text.
Using my imagination and all of my senses, I picture the scene ... Jesus in the hot, dry desert, feeling parched by the heat of the sun.
Can I imagine feeling the thirst that Jesus feels?
When Jesus speaks with the woman, what do I notice about their conversation?
Perhaps I place myself by the well and imagine myself as the Samaritan woman.
I hear Jesus addressing me by my name and offering me living water.
What am I thirsting for?
What is Jesus offering me?
I end my prayer by making my own response to Jesus’s invitation.
When I am ready, I close my prayer slowly with a prayerful sign of the cross.
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