Living Water        This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Lent, and our Gospel reading is John 4:5-42: the encounter of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at the well. But it is not just this one woman Jesus reaches – as important as that is. The whole town of Sychar is reached, the 12 disciples are taught, and we readers and hearers of the story also are encountered by Jesus.       The brief version of what happened is this: the woman comes to the well to draw water around Noon. Jesus is alone, sitting by the well, and asks her for a drink. As Jews normally would not speak with Samaritans, nor men with women in public like this, the woman says, How can you ask? Jesus answers, "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." Jesus' "living water" is certainly more than the H 2 O the woman came for. And so the conversation about water becomes about ete...

The Examen Prayer        In this last article in our series of prayer we want to look at prayer in the form of an examination of conscience.       St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Company of Jesus (Jesuits), has much to say about prayer, praying with the Scriptures, and meditation (reflective or imaginative). Any of the books, CD’s, or DVD’s by Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV, does a marvelous job of explaining St. Ignatius’ teaching, methods, and “how-to” steps in today’s language and profusely illustrated with practical examples. Fr. Gallagher also has a book called, The Examen Prayer, Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today.       Catholic tradition has always recommended that we regularly examine our conscience to reflect prayerfully on our thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions in order to identify sins and faults needing correction. Certainly before the Sacrament of Penance (Confession), we alway...