NEWSLETTER INSERTS - ON THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

‘Lord of Life, you shaped every human being in your image and likeness. We believe you created us for communion, not for war, for fraternity, not for destruction.

You who greeted your disciples saying, “Peace be with you,” grant us the gift of your peace and the strength to make it a reality in history. Today we lift up our prayer for peace in the world, asking that nations renounce weapons and choose the path of dialogue and diplomacy. Disarm our hearts of hatred, resentment, and indifference, so we may become instruments of reconciliation.

Help us understand that true security does not come from control fueled by fear, but from trust, justice, and solidarity among peoples. Lord, enlighten the leaders of the nations, so they may have the courage to abandon projects of death, halt the arms race, and place the lives of the most vulnerable at the center.

May the nuclear threat never again dictate the future of humanity. Holy Spirit, make us faithful and creative builders of daily peace: in our hearts, our families, our communities, and our cities. May every kind word, every gesture of reconciliation, and every choice for dialogue be seeds of a new world. Amen’.

Pope Leo XIV, Prayer Intention for March 2026

‘Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace, intercede for us before the Lord. You recognized true peace in the Crucifix of San Damiano, teach us to seek in him the source of all reconciliation that breaks down every wall. You who, unarmed, crossed the lines of war and misunderstanding, give us the courage to build bridges where the world raises up boundaries. In this time afflicted by conflict and division, intercede for us so that we may become peacemakers: unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ. Amen’.

Pope Leo XIV, Prayer to St Francis of Assisi.

‘The Gospel scene today shows Jesus, thirsty and tired. A Samaritan woman finds him at the hottest hour, at midday, asking for refreshment like a beggar. It is an image of God’s abasement. God lowers himself in Jesus Christ for our redemption. He comes to us. In Jesus, God made himself one of us, he lowered himself. Thirsty like us, he suffers our same thirst. Thinking about this scene, each one of us can say: the Lord, the Teacher, “asks me for a drink. So, he is thirsty like me. He shares my thirst. You are truly near me, Lord! You are linked to my poverty.” I can’t believe it! “You have grasped me from below, from the lowest part of myself, where no one reaches me”

Pope Francis

‘The Gospel this Sunday of Jesus and the woman at the well, speaks of a deeper thirst we have. Before we start with our thirst for God, what is even more important to acknowledge is God’s thirst for us. On the cross just before he died, Jesus cried out ‘I thirst’. After his loss of blood, Jesus thirsted for water but most of all, he thirsted for our love. God thirsts for human love. That is why he asked the woman at the well: ‘Give me something to drink’. On the cross, when Jesus said ‘I thirst’, he expressed his desire and God’s desire for our love. It is as if God’s thirst for us can only be satisfied by our thirst for him: ‘O God you are my God for you long. For you my soul is thirsting like a dry weary land without water like a dry weary land without water’. We can easily betray or at least lose our way by forgetting or ignoring him who thirsts for us. What shall we give to him who thirsts for us? A cool drink, we call it love, to quench the thirst of him who first loved us. In the words of St Augustine: ‘Prayer happens when God’s thirst for us meets our thirst for him’.

Fr Billy Swan