<p>Jesus offers the woman at the well living water but note that Jesus offer wells up from within her. Jesus opens us to receive what we already have! Is there a better model for how we as disciples are to live in the world? Through our interactions we hope others experience just a bit more powerfully the Spirit of Love that is already at the very center of who they are.</p><p><strong>March 7th 2021: The Third Sunday of Lent Cycle A</strong></p><p>Exodus 17:3-7</p><p>Psalm 95:1-2 607 8-9</p><p>Romans 5:1-3 5-8</p><p>John 4:5-42</p><p>(Although we are currently in Cycle B congregations always have the opportunity to read from Cycle A for the Third Fourth and Fifth Sundays in Lent especially if they are preparing members for initiation into the Church on Holy Saturday. This weeks reflection features the readings from Cycle A but Cycle B readings can be found <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&amp;&amp;&amp;linkId=80243&amp;targetUrl=https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030324-YearB.cfm>here</a>.)</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider data-color=#282968 data-thicknessnum=2 data-dividerstyle=solid data-topnum=12 data-bottomnum=12 data-height=1 data-lineheight=1>&nbsp;</div></div><h3><strong>Helping Each Other Drink from Our Own Wells</strong></h3><p><em>A reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska&nbsp;</em></p><p><em>O Living Water refresh my soul.</em><br><em>O Living Water refresh my soul.</em><br><em>Spirit of Joy (God) of Creation</em><br><em>Spirit of Hope Spirit of Peace.</em><br><em>1) Spirit of God 2) O set us free 3) Come pray in&nbsp;us.</em></p><p>-Hymn by Sr. Virginia Vissing SSMN; <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&amp;&amp;&amp;linkId=80242&amp;targetUrl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-wd8hiSCEQ>Listen here</a>.</p><p>The itinerant rabbi stopped and rested by Jacobs well near the town of Sychar in Samaria. Jesus had sent disciples into town to buy food. Would they think of bringing a vessel to draw water?&nbsp; It was about noon. A woman approached Jesus carrying her water jar. How strange. Drawing water was done at dawn or dusk long before or after the sun made the heat unbearable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Social customs prohibited a man and woman not related by blood or marriage to converse. If that was not sufficient reason to ignore one another Jesus was a Jew and she a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans had little respect for each other even though they shared much in common including the first five books of their Scriptures the Torah. The Samaritan version was written in Aramaic as opposed to Hebrew and it differed in some places from the Jewish books. Still they shared much of the same Scripture.</p><p>The woman was startled when Jesus asked her for a drink of water. When she points out the obvious that Jews and Samaritans dare not share the same utensils Jesus counters If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you Give me a drink you would have asked and they would have given you living waters. A lengthy theological dialogue arises between them culminating with Jesus revealing to the woman that the one she is speaking to is the Messiah. This revelation propels the woman to leave her water jar behind and return to her community with the Good News. Her witness led them to hear for themselves and believe. In John 4:37-39 Jesus proclaims If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink.&nbsp;Anyone who believes in me as the scripture says from their innermost being will flow rivers of living water.</p><p>In 1984 the English translation of Gustavo Gutierrezs book titled&nbsp;<em>We Drink from our Own Wells</em> was published. It was a foundational work of Liberation Theology. Although Fr. Gutierrez gives credit to Bernard of Clairvaux for the title we find in Proverbs 5:15 the admonition Drink water from your cistern and fresh (living) water from your own well.&nbsp; Fr. Gutierrez tells us to root spirituality in our own experience and sources.&nbsp;</p><p>As LGBTQIA+ Catholics and members of DignityUSA we are committed to gender justice in Church and Society. We are called to listen to the evidence of our many faith journeys offering hospitality to all on the margins. We are called to empower people to trust their own experience of love and so to drink from the living water that the Divine Love has placed within them. Lifting our voices even as we help others lift theirs we minister particularly to those who have been othered. We take this rabbi who is so radical as to treat a Samaritan woman as fully human as our model.&nbsp;Importantly we hold ourselves and each other accountable for our words and actions because we know that liberation is won when we unlearn our own oppressive behaviors and struggle for everyones freedom.&nbsp;Only then will Isaiahs prophetic utterance (68:11) become our reality With Joy you will draw water from the wells of Salvation.</p><h1><strong>&nbsp;</strong></h1><div><div class=titan__email-divider data-color=#282968 data-thicknessnum=2 data-dividerstyle=solid data-topnum=12 data-bottomnum=12 data-height=1 data-lineheight=1>&nbsp;<img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/botsannmarie_szpakowska.png'></div></div><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Ann Marie Szpakowska</strong>&nbsp;has been active and in leadership of Dignity/Buffalo for nearly 40 years. She also participates in the Women's Caucus and has been an active contributor to Liturgical planning for Dignity's Conventions Conferences and on Feminist Liturgy Committees over many years.&nbsp;She has presented workshops both locally and at Dignity Conventions.</em></p><p><em>She has also been a member of St. Martin de Porres parish since 4 inner city churches merged and built a new sanctuary in 1993. St. Martin de Porres is a predominantly African American community in Buffalo New York.</em></p></div></div></div></div>