The Jar You Carry: Third Sunday of Lent, Year A — Sunday Experience

Date: 8 March 2026
Season: Lent, Year A — Third Sunday
Readings: Exodus 17:3–7 | Psalm 95 | Romans 5:1–2, 5–8 | John 4:5–42
Format: Guided somatic meditation + silent interior exercise
Placement: Penitential rite (primary) — see adaptation note for post-communion
Duration: 7–9 minutes

For the Minister

This piece has two movements. The first is somatic and imagistic — it brings the body to the well before the mind arrives. The second is a silent interior exercise with a precise instruction. The precision matters: state it clearly, simply, and then get out of the way. Long silence is not empty. It is the point.

Voice: Slow. Unhurried. Let the pauses do their work — they are not gaps to be filled. If silence feels long to you as presider, it is probably the right length for the assembly.

Tone: Not therapeutic. Not performative. The register is companionable — you are walking to the well alongside people, not leading a workshop.

Potential discomfort: The I Am exercise surfaces quickly how much of our identity is functional and role-based. Some people will find this confronting. That is not a problem to be managed — it is the exercise working. The return sequence at the end is essential: no one should be left exposed.

Music: If used, silence is preferable during the exercise itself. Gentle instrumental music may accompany the opening arrival sequence only. Stop the music before the instruction is given.

Adaptation for post-communion: Replace the opening invitation (Today, let us include our bodies in this prayer...) with: We have just received. Before we return to the afternoon, to the roles and the errands, let us stay for a moment at the well. Then proceed from the road sequence. The return sequence remains the same.

Script

Opening Invitation

Today, let us include our bodies in this prayer.

Find a position that is both comfortable and alert — feet on the floor, hands resting open or loosely held, spine gently upright.

(pause — 5 seconds)

Take one slow breath in. And release it without hurry.

(pause — 5 seconds)

We are going to a well. Not as an exercise. Not as a metaphor — not yet. First, simply as a body, walking toward water.

Part One — The Road to the Well

(slow, imagistic — allow 5–8 seconds between each image)

It is the middle of the day.

The sun is directly overhead — no shadow in front of you, no shadow behind. Just light, falling straight down, on the back of your neck, on your shoulders, on the tops of your hands.

Feel the heat.

(pause)

The ground beneath your feet is dry. Dust rises slightly with each step. You can feel the warmth of it through your sandals, or your shoes, or your bare feet — wherever you are standing right now, let the ground hold you.

(pause)

You are carrying something.

It may be a jar, a vessel, a bag — whatever image comes. Feel its weight in your hands, or on your shoulder, or against your hip.

It is not a burden, exactly. It is simply what you carry when you go to get what you need.

(pause)

You have made this journey before. Many times. You know this road. You chose this hour.

(pause)

You arrive at the well.

You set the vessel down.

(longer pause — 8 seconds)

Part Two — The Jar on the Ground

(transition — slightly more direct in tone, unhurried but clear)

Your hands are empty for a moment.

I want to invite you into a simple exercise. I’ll explain it clearly, and then I’ll give you silence to do it.

(pause — 3 seconds)

In a moment, I’m going to invite you to complete a sentence — silently, in your own mind — as many times as it comes naturally.

The sentence is: I am…

(pause — 3 seconds)

Here is the one instruction:

Do not describe yourself through your roles or your work.

Not what you do. Not who you are responsible for. Not your job, your title, your function in this community, your relationship to anyone else.

Not I am a mother, a teacher, a priest, a carer. Not I am someone who…

Just: who are you, underneath all of that?

(pause — 5 seconds)

There is no right answer. There is no wrong answer. You don’t need to share this with anyone.

Simply notice what arrives — and notice, without judgment, how quickly the roles and functions come rushing in to fill the sentence.

That rushing is not a failure. It is information. It is the jar.

(pause — 5 seconds)

When you are ready —

I am…

(long silence — minimum 90 seconds. Do not shorten this.)

Return

(gently, when the silence has been held)

Whenever you are ready, come back to the room.

Feel the weight of the chair beneath you. The floor under your feet. The air moving in and out of your lungs.

(pause)

Pick up the jar.

You don’t have to leave it here today. You are not being asked to arrive anywhere different than where you came in.

But perhaps you know a little more about what you are carrying — and why.

(pause)

That is enough.

(pause)

That is, in fact, quite a lot.

Closing

The woman at the well today came to get through her errand unseen. She left her jar behind — not because she was told to, but because something happened that made it suddenly unnecessary.

We cannot manufacture that moment. But we can arrive at the well. We can set the jar down for a moment. We can let ourselves be a little less defended than we were when we walked in.

The rest is not our work.

(pause)

And whatever we have found — whatever we have glimpsed about ourselves in this silence — let us offer it now to the one who is the source, the fountain, the well of all acceptance, our Father, who receives everything we bring.

Through the intercession of his beloved Son, who sat down tired at a well in Samaria and was not afraid to be seen — may we be set more and more free of the burdens we carry around.

(pause)

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Practical Notes

On the silence: 90 seconds of silence feels very long in a liturgical setting. It is not too long for this exercise. Brief the assembly if needed: I’m going to give you some real silence — longer than you might expect. Stay with it.

On the instruction: Read the I Am instruction exactly as written. The examples (not a mother, a teacher, a priest) are essential — they model the boundary concretely. Without them, people will not know what they are being asked to avoid.

On the roles example: If your community includes many clergy or religious, consider adding not a religious, not ordained to the examples. The exercise is as challenging — often more so — for those whose identity is most publicly defined by vocation.

On the return sequence: Do not rush the return. The line pick up the jar / you don’t have to leave it here today is the fig leaf. It is not decorative — it is the safety of the exercise. Someone in that assembly may have just touched something they have not looked at in years. They need to be accompanied back.

On the closing transition to the penitential rite: The final Lord, have mercy flows directly from the exercise. If using the full Roman Rite form III (the Kyrie with invocations), the invocations may be adapted to echo the jar, the well, the thirst — or simply use the plain Kyrie. The exercise has already done the preparation.

Check out other resources for This Sunday:

Cattle, Jars, and Calcified Chests – an introduction to this Sunday’s spirit.

The Spring Inside the Stone – a reading by reading exploration of this Sunday Biblical Background.

Come to the Water – a ready to use Prayer of the Faithful.