When we are in prayer, we encounter Jesus, and discover, like the Samaritan woman, that our dialogue with Jesus has life giving properties. This is prayer! Not prayer where our words seem to mock the silence of our mind. But prayer where the silence of our mind allows whispers of love to reach down into the desires that we own but would not like others to have.

Prayer which seeps through the hard slab stones of our cultural life. These stones have supported many a daily journey. Shopping, work, food; - shopping work food. Going to bed, getting up; - shopping, work, food. And of course the encounters we have on these journeys. The gossip, the drinking and the laughing.

If you start to practise this type of prayer where ‘silence of the mind is putting your soul in the presence of God, and nothing appears to be happening. Do not give up! Persevere! And look at what is happening in your daily routine. You will start to notice the difference!

The ground beneath the stones, our unburnt souls, is seething with activity as yet unseen. ‘The water that I will give you will become in you a spring which will provide you with life giving water and give you eternal life (John 4:14 )

Seeds of past flowerings are ready to burst into new life. Our God is not a God of one chance, he is a God of many chances. ‘You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth.’ If only that woman had met Jesus earlier. Her many loves gained and lost through lust would have been transformed through the sensuous Love of Jesus. However, she is given another chance. Repentance and renewal are the irrigation channels of our souls: Channels of peace.

Continued