I just got back from the Canadian Conference on Evangelization & Catechesis – He thirsts for you!  in Ottawa from April 4th to 6th. It was a time of great fellowship among many friends from the different Dioceses in Canada. We all had the blessing to listen to great keynote speakers like Dr. Josephine Lombardi, presenting ‘At the well: The encounter that transforms’; Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI, presenting ‘From the well to the world’; and  Most Rev. William McGrattan, Bishop of Calgary, presenting ‘Returning to the well: Ongoing transformation’. We also enjoyed the beautiful presentation of my dear friend and sister in Carmel Elisa Lollino, OCDS. She did her one-woman play ‘He thirsts for you’.
We also had the wonderful opportunity to attend a variety of educational and inspirational workshops. They helped us to expand our minds and hearts in the Christian faith so we can share it with others.

In the ‘Letter of Welcome’ of the Most Rev. Lionel Gendron, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, he stated: “Inspired by the Gospel of John 4: 5-42 the phrase He thirsts for you speaks of God’s desire that we experience deeply his love for us. Saint Teresa of Calcutta, in one of her letters, asks a very important question of the members of the Missionaries of Charity:

Why does Jesus say “I Thirst”? What does it mean? Something so hard to explain in words—if you remember anything from Mother’s letter, remember this—“I thirst” is something much deeper than Jesus saying “I love you.” Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you—you can’t begin to know who He wants to be for you. Or who He wants you to be for Him. (Mother Teresa, Letter to Her Spiritual Family, March 25, 1993)

It is this thirst that the Samaritan woman experiences in her encounter with Jesus at the well. It is this thirst which propels her to go and enthusiastically tell others about what she has learned from Him. It is this thirst that makes her a missionary disciple.

Like the Samaritan woman, we too are called and empowered to become ever more missionary disciples who, having encountered Christ, are filled with the Spirit and sent to spread the Good News. We are sent forth to share with our brothers and sisters that, by the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been saved, we are loved deeply and in a transforming way for God.”

 

 

Woman

Walking
in the searing sunlight.
Glare stinging my eyes
with sudden tears.
Behind the fortress walls
of surrounding houses
They surely watch.

I can barely raise
one foot after another.
Dust chokes
my dry mouth.
This pot, my burden
Unfilled,
like a dead weight
on my body.

I walk
this daily walk
of torment.
I walk
Alone.
It has been
for such a long time now.
Must it always be so?

The Well

Today I met him
such a man
as I have longed to meet
for all my life.
Today I met him, I
will never be the same again.

Today I talked to him
such a man
as I have longed to talk to
all my life.
A man who talked with me
as if he had known me
all my life.

Today he looked at me.
He smiled at me
as none else has ever done before.
He knew my sin
and yet
he took my cup.

Joy unquenchable
fills me,
Messiah.
I will speak his words
throughout the land.
I will never be the same.
Because today
I met Him.
❤

~ A poem by Josephine Collett