Woman at the Well
Gospel Contemplation
Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits, ‘The Society of Jesus,’ and by all accounts, he was a bit of an eejit until his conversion in 1521. His radical conversion came about when, convalescing after a war injury. He read a book, ‘The Life of Christ’, and, as an exercise, imagined himself present in some of the gospel scenes. The transformative work of the Holy Spirit had begun deep within, and he found in the scriptures a way of dialoguing with God.
These exercises may be a pattern that could be revelatory for you.
Woman at the Well - An exercise in Contemplation
In this form of contemplation we enter a gospel story about Jesus by using our imagining.
Ignatius of Loyola learnt from ‘praying the scriptures’ – a way of prayer that unites thinking, feeling, remembering and imagining.
1.Find a quiet, comfortable place and pray, ‘I quiet myself and relax in the presence of God.’
2.Read the passage through a couple of times.
2b. If you have time [25 mins] listen to Ben Baker’s sermon on the Woman at the Well 6/9/26.
3.Try and enter the story as if you were there. Look around in the story, notice the people there. Listen to what is said. Imagine you are present in the story. Allow yourself to interact with the others in the story. Have a conversation with them, listen to what they say to you and each other.
Allow the event to unfold through your imagining using the narrative of the gospel.
Afterwards, reflect on your time of prayer. This is not about the ideas you have come up with, but about the interaction between the Lord and you. What happened inside you as you prayed? You may find it helpful to write notes from your ‘meeting’ or perhaps to make a sketch or a poem.
Read John 4:1-42
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples.
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Here are other Scriptures which can open a window of imagining and aid intimacy with the Lord Jesus:
Resurrection Scriptures
Mark 16:1-8 Jesus appears to the women at the Tomb
John 20: 11-18 Jesus meets Mary Magdalene
Luke 24: 13-35 The Road to Emmaus
John 20: 19-22 Peace be with you
John 21: 1-19 Sea of Tiberias
Philippians 1: 3-11 I thank God when I think of you
Philippians 4: -9 I want you to be happy
Intimacy with Christ Scriptures
Luke 4:14-30 Return to Nazareth
Luke 5: 1-11 Call of the Disciples
John 1: 35-39 What do you want?
John 2: 1-12 Cana Miracle
Luke 10: 38-42 Mary and Martha
John 13: 1-16 The Washing of the Feet
Ephesians 6: 10-20 Put on the Armour
God’s Love Texts
Luke 11: 1-13 Lord Teach Us to Pray
Isaiah 55: 1-3 Come to the Water
Isaiah 43: 1-7 You are Precious in my Eyes
Isaiah 49: 14-16 I will never forget you
Deuteronomy 1:29-32 Don’t be Afraid, the Lord carries you.
Forgiveness/Healing texts
Ezekiel 36: 25-29 I shall pour clean water over you
Luke: 5 12-16 Healing the Leper
Mark 2: 1-12 Healing the paralysed man
Mark 5: 21-24 and 35-43 Jairus’ daughter
Mark 5: 25-34 Woman with the bleeding disorder
Luke 15: 11-32 Lost Son and loving Father
John 5: 1-9 The paralysed man at the pool of Bethzatha
Scriptures on Trust
Psalm 46 God is our shelter and strength
Psalm 27 God is my light and my salvation
Matthew 6: 24-34 Do not Worry
Matthew 14: 22-33 Walk on Water
Mark 4: 35-41 Calming the Storm
John 15: 1-8 Apart from me you can do nothing
Jeremiah 18: 1-7 The Potter
