Every year the week from 18-25 January, the days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul, are set aside as a time for prayer for Christian Unity.
This year we are invited to reflect on the Gospel story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well when Jesus says to the woman ‘Give me to drink’. In the paragraph below you will find a reflection on the first part of the story
Journey, scorching sun, tiredness, thirst …”Give me to drink.” This is a demand of all human beings. God, who becomes human in Christ and empties himself to share our humanity is capable of asking the Samaritan woman: “Give me to drink”. At the same time, this God offers the living water: “The water that I will give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.
The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman invites us to try water from a different well and also to offer a little of our own. In diversity, we enrich each other. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an opportunity to recognize the richness and value that are present in the other, the different, and to ask God for the gift of unity.
The image shows the monastery in Erfurt, Germany where Martin Luther studied to become an Augustinian monk.
Source: www.vatican.va
