So Fr. Edward Beck who you might know from Good Morning America, led us in evening prayer last night. He reflected on the woman at the well and left me considering the question that Jesus truly leaves the woman with which is “Who are my other husbands?” What tempts us, seduces us, takes us away from what we truly think is important?

I apparently have lots of “husbands” as my time is quite often divided between many things that I participate in. But I was able to be converted last night and to realize that I need to come to that water of refreshment. That I have so many “husbands” that I have no time for God, no time for my spouse, no time to excel at one calling and not twelve.

Perhaps, I’m being to harsh, I thought. Perhaps it’s not “no time” but “time spent that where I am not present and attentive.” If I were to be attentive I may indeed find that living water that will never let me thirst again.

Needless to say it was a rich, reflective time for me.

But then, it happened…

I walked out of the Basilica on the Notre Dame Campus and there it was…

God’s grandeur. The grass was not only a deep, deep green but each blade seemed distinct and unique. The behemoth trees were filled with a vibrancy of bark and leaves and the veins that ran through each individual leaf.

In the distance the setting sun called to me…don’t miss this…don’t miss this. And I didn’t with the swirling clouds and the colors of blues and pinks and reds and purples enveloped the midwestern sky on the lake’s horizon. The lake itself was teeming with fish and clear water and ducks floating effortlessly on the pond’s surface but working those webbed feet below furiously. Even the basketball courts were alive with God’s grandeur where the nets intertwined from each hoop, swaying in the breeze hoping to be the goal of the player who’s swish shot animates the net’s snapping voice.

I was truly alive and all was grace. That Amazing Grace where a single moment of blindness turns to sight once again.

We can all be the woman at the well with our divided lives, filled with unsatisfying husbands that leave us unsatisfied and moving from one unsatisfying partner to another without notice for what truly brings us to life.

Today may we pray that we can notice that the whole world is filled with God’s grace and our lives, when we take the time to be present to what we are doing and where we are right now without notice of what’s next.

Can you meet Jesus at the well and leave your husbands behind and drink deeply of that refreshing water that never makes you thristy again?