The Woman at the Well
Today on the Third Sunday of Lent the Church presents us with the beloved story of the woman at the well, or the Samaritan woman, from John’s gospel (chapter 4). Many believers love this event in the bible due to its depth of meaning and layers of liberating promise. If someone like the Samaritan woman can be loved and accepted and set free by Jesus, all of can be!
Our foundress and holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus makes mentions her love of this story in her autobiography:
“Oh, how often I remember the living water of which the Lord spoke to the woman of Samaria. I am so fond of that Gospel. I have loved it ever since I was a child—though I did not, of course, understand it properly then, as I do now—and I often used to beseech (God) to give me that water.” (Life ch 30)
Take some time today to read slowly the gospel account from John 4: 4-42. Bring yourself to the well just as you are, with all your hidden secrets, burdens, sins, and hopelessness.
Guess what? There’s Someone waiting for you there!
Top featured image: Carl Heinrich Bloch’s painting, “Woman at the Well,” from the Chapel at Frederiksborg Palace in Copenhagen