Limerick Diocese - Publications

Referring to the occasion when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to give him something to drink ( Jn 4:7 ), the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

“It is (Jesus) who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realise it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (2560).

We find it hard to hear the message of Jesus Christ in all its wonder and in all its challenge. One important reason for that is that we do not recognise our own thirst, our own longing for God, our need of Christ the Way and of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life.

We long to find meaning in our lives, a meaning that we can find only in the God who made us and invited us to share in the glory of Christ. We learn to understand that meaning by listening to God’s Word.

We long to belong. We are not meant to be isolated individuals; we are members of the universal human family and are called to belong in a way that surpasses all imagining and limitations because it leads to the new creation where that family will be transformed, freed from all, imperfection, frailty, suffering, betrayal, and death.

We long to have a purpose or mission that is worth the effort of our whole heart and soul and might. Every business and institution now has a mission statement. We all need a goal in life and that goal and task has been given to us by Jesus Christ.

We long to be able to hope with a hope strong enough to face all the suffering of life. The great underlying fear is that life may, in the end, be absurd. The death and resurrection of Jesus show us a God whose power and love are more powerful than evil and death.

What the Catechism says about prayer is true above all of the supreme Christian prayer – the Mass. The Eucharist is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. The more fully we acknowledge our thirst, the more ready we are to participate in and to appreciate the gift of the Eucharist.

These reflections are intended to help individuals and groups to recognise that thirst for meaning, belonging, purpose, and hope and to help them understand more clearly how our celebration of the Eucharist and our prayer before the Blessed Sacrament can both intensify and promise to satisfy that thirst.

Pastoral

THE EMPTINESS THAT ASKS ABOUT MEANING

“THAT MOURNS IN LONELY EXILE HERE”

“IS THAT ALL THERE IS?”

“WE HAD HOPED…”