The gospel reading of today invites us to reflect on the story of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, so that we may experience Jesus as the Living Water that quenches our thirst. We can recognise the 7 steps that serve as the template to understand the gospel encounters with Jesus. Our focus today is on the journey: this simply shows that our experience of God is a process. It is ongoing. It has its stages. Let us first enjoy this text by paying attention to some details then we will focus on the aspect of journey.
Empty Jar: The Thirst
To begin with, an important detail to pay attention to in the opening verses of John 4 is the time of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. […]
Jesus Experience
St. Barlow’s Mission Week – Day 2 – Pointers
In most cultures, one of the games that children play is “hide and seek”, with many variants – tag, sardines, or hidey (inScotland). There is a lot of fun in finding hidden objects and people! God seems to play ‘hide and seek’ with human beings.
Isaiah cries out, “Oh God of Israel, you are a God who lies hidden” (Is 45:15). And the Psalmist prays, “It is your face Oh Lord that I seek, hide not your face from me” (Ps 27:8b,9). This was the situation of the old dispensation. But suddenly there is a surprise in the history of salvation. God is made visible in the form of a little babe.
The story in the text that we have chosen for our reflection today tells us of three wise men from the East […]