Come to the Water: Third Sunday of Lent, Year A — Prayer of the Faithful

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 Response: Reader: Lord, hear us. All: Lord, graciously hear us.

Celebrant Introduction

The woman at the well came alone, at noon, carrying what she needed to survive another day. She did not expect to be seen. She did not expect to be known. She did not expect to leave her jar behind.

We come to this table carrying our own jars — our needs, our burdens, our carefully managed distances from one another. We bring them now to the one who is the source of living water, who receives everything we carry, and who is not afraid of anything we have done.

Intercessions

For the Church — That our communities may become places where no one needs to come at noon — where the excluded, the judged, the quietly ashamed find not silence or sideways glances but the gaze of the one who knows everything we have done and still calls us by name. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For those who define themselves by their exclusion — For all who have built their lives around not being witnessed: who avoid the gathering, the table, the conversation, because experience has taught them that to be seen is to be diminished. May something — a word, a gesture, an unexpected kindness — crack open what has been sealed, and let them know that the spring is still there, inside the stone. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For our communities — That we grow in the capacity to love without conditions attached — to welcome not only those who arrive confidently but those who slip in at the edges, those who cannot name what they are thirsty for, those who have been turned away before and are not sure they should have come back. Make us communities worth returning to. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For those who suffer thirst — For every person on this earth for whom thirst is not a metaphor but a daily reality: those without access to clean water, those in drought-stricken lands, those in refugee camps and temporary settlements where water is rationed, contaminated, or controlled. May we never mistake our abundance for entitlement. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For the waters of the earth — Water is not a commodity. It is a gift, belonging to every creature, held in trust by every generation. We pray for the rivers, the aquifers, the springs and wetlands that are disappearing under the weight of our carelessness. May we take seriously our shared responsibility to keep the water clean, the sources unblocked, and the wells open to all. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For our families and this community — For all among us who are thirsty in ways they cannot name — the lonely, the exhausted, the ones who are getting through the week by carrying what they have always carried, on the same road, at the same hour. May they find, unexpectedly, someone sitting at the well who is not afraid of their history. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For those preparing for Easter — For the elect who are journeying toward the waters of baptism, who stand today at the First Scrutiny — examined not to be shamed but to be set free. May they know, in this season of honest looking, that the one who sees everything they have done is the same one who says: come, and drink. May their communities walk closely with them, and may what is ready to be released in them be released gently, in love. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

For the dead — For all who have gone before us, who carried their jars to the end, and who now drink from the source itself. May they rest in the living water that never requires return. Lord, hear us. — Lord, graciously hear us.

Celebrant Conclusion

God our Father — you are the fountain, the source, the well that does not run dry. You stood on the rock at Horeb before Moses arrived. You sat at the well in Samaria before the woman came. You are already at the place of our thirst, waiting without impatience, ready to give what no jar can carry home.

Receive these prayers, and all that we could not find words for. Through Christ our Lord, the living water, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Practical Notes

Tone: Unhurried. These intercessions are longer than standard petitions — they name experience rather than just category. Allow a breath between the petition and the response.

Adaptation: In communities where water scarcity is a lived reality rather than a distant concern, the ecological and thirst petitions may be combined and expanded. In communities with many elderly or housebound members, consider adding a petition for those who cannot travel to the well — who thirst for community and sacrament from a distance.

On the exclusion petitions: Two separate petitions address exclusion — one for those who exclude themselves, one for the community’s capacity to receive. Both are needed. The tendency in liturgical prayer is to pray for the outsider without examining the community’s role in creating the conditions of exclusion. This Sunday will not allow that evasion.

Seasonal continuity: This is the Third Sunday of Lent. The arc from First Sunday (desert, exposure, temptation) through Second Sunday (Transfiguration, light, the voice that calls beloved) arrives here at the well — the place of encounter, of being known, of leaving something behind. The intercessions carry that arc: we are praying not only for needs but for the gradual liberation that Lent is offering.

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.

The Jar You Carry – an embodied penitential rite.