Dear friends,

Last weekend, the Community and Mission Council (formerly the Pastoral Council), put out a call for people to join the organising sub-committee for the approaching parish centenary celebrations next year. The first Mass was celebrated in the parish on September 22nd, 1918. Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of that occasion, and we are planning to mark this significant milestone with a number of celebrations. If you would like to be part of the plotting and planning, please include your name on the sheet near the front doors of the church. It would be wonderful to draw on the energies and creativity of as many people as possible, and I encourage you to give consideration to becoming part of the preparation team.

This Sunday’s gospel, the ‘woman at the well’, is one of the best known of the Gospel stories, a story extremely rich in offering us insights into our own daily life. In fact, we have to be careful not to be so overwhelmed by the length and depth of the story that we do not receive its messages. At this well, Jesus speaks, heaven forbid, to a Samaritan, and a woman at that — double trouble! In their encounter, she jokes (mocks?) with him and he engages her in ‘imaginative dialogue’ that takes her to a new depth of understanding about herself. This offers her a way out of the cycle of emotional abuse in which she has been caught. His greatest gift is to treat her with respect for her personal dignity. Through this encounter she is transformed.

Such is the promise of Lent and Easter. Can we open ourselves to recognise our deeper hungers and thirsts so as to encounter Jesus, who is the real food and drink for living a truly human life? The woman at the well went off in the heat of the day to complete her daily routine. Jesus broke into her world and offered her new life. May we ourselves sense something of this surprising presence in the week ahead.

Fr. Anthony