 |
| Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. |
Third Sunday of
Lent • Year A • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2,
6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-42
📖 The Gospel - John 4:5-42
Jesus sits down
at Jacob's Well in Samaria, tired, thirsty, and a woman comes to draw water
alone in the heat of the day. What begins as a simple request for a drink
becomes one of the most extraordinary conversations in all of Scripture. Jesus
offers her living water. And she becomes one of the first evangelists in the
Gospels, running back to her village crying: come see a man who told me
everything I ever did.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
She came to the
well alone at midday. In that culture, women drew water in the cool of the
morning, in groups, together. She came alone at noon. Which tells us something.
She was avoiding people. She carried something heavy, five husbands, a
complicated life, the weight of being seen and judged. She came to that well
expecting nothing except water. She left having met the Messiah.
Jesus is tired in this story. The Gospel
says so specifically, wearied from the journey. And He sits down at the well
anyway and opens a conversation with the last person His world expected Him to
talk to, a Samaritan, a woman. What poured out of that tired, thirsty Jesus
sitting at that well was the most extraordinary offer anyone has ever made to
another person: if you drink the water I give you, you will never be thirsty
again.
The Samaritan woman at the well is every
person who has ever felt too broken, too complicated, too much, to come to God.
She is every person who draws water alone at noon because the morning crowd
would judge. And Jesus sits down right there at her well and says, I know your
whole story. All of it. And I am still here. I am still offering it to you to
come and drink of this water.
That is what Our Lady has been doing
through the Rosary all these years; she keeps leading us back to the well where
her Son is sitting. She keeps whispering, go talk to Him. He already knows
everything. He is not going to turn you away.
💭 Reflection Question
What is the heavy
thing you have been carrying to the well alone, the part of your story you
think disqualifies you from a real encounter with Jesus, and what would happen
if you simply sat down with Him there today and let Him speak?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Scourging at
the Pillar
Jesus, who offered
living water, was Himself treated like someone of no worth, stripped and
scourged by the very people He came to save. As you pray these beads, hold the
image of the Woman at the Well alongside the image of the Scourging, and see in
both the same inexhaustible love that refuses to give up on any soul.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
The woman at the
well came looking for physical water and found the source of all living water.
The children of Fatima came to a dusty field to tend their sheep and found the
Queen of Heaven. God has a consistent habit of meeting people exactly where they
are, at the well, in the field, on the road, in a rolling car on the Garden
State Parkway, and offering them something so far beyond what they came looking
for that it changes everything. Our Lady of Fatima is always pointing to that
well. She is always saying, go to Him. He is there, and he is waiting for you.
He knows your whole story; your whole life will change once you do.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, here
I am at the well. I have been carrying this heavy burden alone. I didn't think
You'd want to talk to me today. But You sat down anyway, tired, and full of
love, and You offered me water I could never find anywhere else. I will receive
it from you, giving my life fully to you, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
________________________________________________
Want to know more
about My Spiritual Journey?
Read My Story: An Invitation To Read My Story - My Testimony
