The Fountain For Which I Thirst

The newsletter, this week, has the reading and reflections for Year C in the Lectionary. But we are going to use the readings for Year A.

These readings — particularly the Gospel readings, about the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus — have a long history of being used in the preparation of those about to be baptised. As you know, we have four adults who will be baptised this Easter, and eleven others who are already baptised but will receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist.

Lent — for those who are to be baptised, at the Vigil on Holy Saturday night, and be received into full communion with the Catholic church — is a special time of preparation. On the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent, at the Sunday 6pm Mass, we have a rite called the Scrutinies, where the elect are examined and strengthened in their faith journey. Listening to the Reading for Year A gives us the opportunity to pray for those who are coming to Baptism, and, through listening to these readings, we can deepen our own conversation in preparation for renewing our baptismal promises at Easter.

This Sunday we read how Jesus sits by the well, while his disciples go in search of food. Here he encounters a Samaritan woman who has come to draw water. John the Evangelist conveys a wonderful conversation between Jesus and the woman, during which Jesus reveals that he is the living water. She reveals to him her thirst — not for water, but for real intimacy and wholeness which in the end, she realises, only Jesus can fulfil. Leaving her water-jar by the well, she runs to tell the rest of the village to come and see ‘the man who has told me all that I ever did.’

At the Scrutiny, in our prayer for those who are to be baptised, we ask that they may turn to the Lord, as they hear his word and acknowledge the sins and weaknesses that weigh them down. We ask that they may be given purity of heart.

Here are some of the words of that prayer, which we can make our own on this Third Sunday of Lent:

Lord Jesus, you are the fountain for which I thirst, you are the Master whom I seek. Open my heart to you in faith. I confess my faults and lay bare my hidden wounds. Touch my heart with the power of the Holy Spirit that I may come to know the Father in true faith, which expresses itself in love.