Scripture Scribbles: March 8, 2026
the Gospel
John 4:5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
the scribble
There is something deeply personal about this encounter at the well. Jesus meets a woman in the ordinary rhythm of her day, drawing water, at the well, and gently reveals her deepest thirst. What begins as a simple request, “Give me a drink,” becomes an invitation into something eternal: “living water.”
For the past six years or so, I’ve been blessed to gather with a group of women, for a Bible study. This group just happens to be called, “Women At The Well.”
Week after week we come, carrying our own jars, our responsibilities, our wounds, our questions, our hopes, and we sit together, thirsty for God‘s word.
Like the Samaritan woman, we arrive in the middle of our ordinary lives. And like her, we are met there. Not with condemnation, but with truth, tenderness, and the promise that our thirst is not a burden to God, it is the very place where He desires to meet us.
This Lent has looked a little different to my husband and me. Recently becoming “empty-nesters,” we have found ourselves traveling and enjoying different Catholic churches up and down the seacoast and even joining our kids in their beautiful Churches and Basilicas that they are attending while away from home. Each one unique in its beauty and its architecture, yet profoundly the same, no matter where we go. The same readings are proclaimed, the same sacrifice of the Mass is offered, the same Christ is present. There is something deeply comforting, almost overwhelming, about this unity. The Catholic Church gathers her children at the same table and we are all invited.
This past week in the heart of Boston’s Seaport, on a bitterly cold winter evening, my husband and I stepped into a warm, glowing church, Our Lady of Good Voyage, for a 7 PM Mass. To our delight a quiet invitation for Adoration greeted us. It felt like walking into a refuge, not just from the cold, but from the noise and weariness of life.
As I sat in adoration, I found myself emptying all my gratitude out at the altar. Gratitude for the beauty of the church. Gratitude for the sacraments. Gratitude for the quiet constancy of Christ in the Eucharist, waiting, always waiting, for us, no matter how far we wander, how distracted we become, or how heavy our hearts feel, He remains there, offering Himself again and again as living water. As I sat there in the most peaceful silence, I couldn’t help but think of the Woman At The Well. She came for water, but she left with a mission. She came alone, but she returned to her town as a witness. She came burdened by her past, but encountered Him who saw everything, and loved her still.
Isn’t that what happens to us too? We come to the Well, to Scripture, to Mass, to Adoration, often just trying to get through the day, to fill what feels empty. And yet Jesus meets us there and offers something more. He names our truth, not to shame us, but to free us. He invites us in, to draw us close. He is inviting you, I think He is inviting us to be a witness, just like the woman at the well.
Like the women I have been blessed to gather with over the years, like those quiet Churches we have visited on our family vacations and on our spontaneous road trips, like the recent evening in Boston and our cozy pew, surrounded by strangers (but really, brothers and sisters) we keep coming back to the Well. Again and again we discover that He is already there, waiting for us, waiting to give us Living Water.
Are you thirsty?
Today’s devotion was written by Beth Brennan
