Also, First Scrutiny
of the Rite of
Christian Initiation
Jewish Folktale
The story of Miriam's Well is one of the most beautiful stories in Jewish tradition.
It is a Midrash, that is, a story told by "reading between the lines of Scripture."
View the video to find out more about Midrash, and to discover the Christian approach to this Jewish perspective on being faithful to -- and yet creatively imagining -- the Torah.
On a psychological level, this tale explores the feminine aspect of God's care for the People of Israel during the exodus across the Sinai Desert.
Here is the Christian vision of who Miriam, the sister of Moses, is. In the Eastern Churches she is called "Saint Miriam" and portrayed with a tambourine.
The tambourine is associated with the circle dance in Jewish tradition. , and praise to God through the song and dance of the women who model themselves on Miriam.
Third Sunday of Lent
[Also, The First Scrutiny of
the Rite of Christian Initiation]
Lectionary Images
Exodus 17: 1-7 [Revised Common & Episcopal Lectuonaries]
Exodus 17: 3-7 [Roman Lectionary]
With their parched throats
the people cried out to Moses.
“Why did you ever make us leave Egypt,
land of soft fertile earth
fed by the sweet waters of the Nile?”
And Moses cried out to God.
And God said:
“Strike the dry rock of this hard, barren land,
And water shall flow for people to drink”
John 4: 5-42
[Episcopal, Revised Common & Roman Lectuonaries]
And Jesus sat by the Well of Jacob,
and asked the Samaritan woman
for water to drink.
When she turned him away
with questions he said,
“Whoever drinks from Jacob’s Well
will thirst again.
But whoever drinks from My Well
will discover a fountain within,
bubbling with eternal life.”