Vatican ViewPoint 85. Synod Spirituality with Fr. Radcliffe: ‘Samaritan Woman at the Well’
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May 30, 2024 
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican friar and respected voice on spirituality, offers profound insights on the Samaritan Woman at the Well. He discusses Jesus' thirst as a metaphor for God's longing for us and highlights our need to deepen our desire for Him. Radcliffe emphasizes personal encounters over labels, encouraging a love that liberates. Through stories from AIDS clinics, he illustrates joy in suffering and the dignity found in God's presence. Ultimately, he calls for a formation that fosters passionate longing for divine communion.
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God's Thirst For Each Person
- Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman shows God comes to us as one who is thirsty for each person individually.
- Spiritual thirst reframes sinful searching as misdirected longing for the divine.
Form Desires Into Deeper Longing
- Learn to convert ordinary desires into a deeper thirst for God by practicing longing in prayer and attention.
- Form communities and seminarians to hunger for gospel love rather than small satisfactions like status or victory.
Unpossessive Love Frees Communion
- Unpossessive love frees others instead of controlling them and is the mark of a synodal Church.
- Personal encounters that reveal humanity break down abstract hatred and enable honest disagreement without dehumanisation.
