"Your Spirit is blowing in each of our hearts....Your Living Water springs up in our encounters.”
(Acts of the General Chapter 2001)
Recently, as I was relaxing beside a well on the outskirts of the town where I live, I was surprised by the voice of a little boy calling out, “Dad, Dad, Water, Water!” This call awakened in me all kinds of images. I saw myself also, as a child, many decades earlier, playing near a pond and delighting at the sight of tiny tadpoles darting through the water, their translucent bodies shimmering in the sunlight. Then, in my imagination I was wafted to another scene. I was sitting by another well with the Samaritan woman. I overheard Jesus say: “Whoever drinks of the water I will give will never thirst.” A question welled up within me. “What are you thirsting for?” A response began to echo through the enthusiastic voice of a child calling out, “water---water!” and an exciting childhood memory that caused joy to bubble up within me. Yes, I was thirsting for a deeper experience of the ‘Living Water’ – for an awakening of wonder, joy, awe and for surprise in the moment by moment encounters of daily living where the Divine is constantly present.
“Allow yourself to be taken over by a sense of awe in God reaching out to you as though you were the only one who mattered.” Letter 36, Nicolas Barré.
Sr Catherine O'Sullivan