This Sunday, the Church takes us to a well in Samaria where Jesus meets a woman who's been looking for love in all the wrong places.

First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7 The Israelites are dying of thirst in the desert. Instead of trusting God, they grumble against Moses: "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die of thirst?" God tells Moses to strike the rock, and water flows. God provides even when His people doubt Him. Your recovery is the same: you're thirsty for something real, and God will provide if you trust Him instead of complaining.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9 "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." The psalmist calls us to worship God joyfully and warns us not to harden our hearts like the Israelites did at Massah and Meribah. Every day in recovery, you have a choice: will you soften your heart and trust God, or will you harden it and go back to what's destroying everything?

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 St. Paul writes that "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." This isn't love you earn. This is love poured into you while you were still a sinner. Christ died for you before you cleaned up your act. Stop trying to earn it.

Gospel: John 4:5-42 Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well at noon-the hottest part of the day. She's there alone because she's an outcast. The hour of shame. She's had five husbands and is living with a man who isn't her husband. She's spent her whole life looking for love, validation, and satisfaction in relationships that left her emptier than before.

Jesus offers her "living water"-something that will satisfy her deepest thirst forever.

At first, she doesn't understand.

She thinks He's talking about regular water.

But Our Lord is offering Himself.

He's the only one who can fill the void she's been trying to fill with men, with acceptance, with anything but God.

Sound familiar?

You've been drinking from broken wells your whole life.

Lust promised to satisfy you, but it left you thirstier than before.

Every time you act out, you're going back to the same dry well expecting different results.

Jesus is saying the same thing to you that He said to her: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst."

Your wife has watched you go to the broken well of lust over and over.

She needs to see you finally turn to the Living Water.

She needs to see you stop trying to satisfy yourself with what destroys you and start letting God fill the emptiness.

2 Practical Tips:

To Battle Lust: When you're tempted to act out this week, stop and pray: "Jesus, I'm thirsty for something real. Give me the living water only You can provide." Then call your accountability partner, go to adoration, do anything except go back to the broken well.

To Help Your Wife Heal: Tell your wife, "I've been trying to satisfy a thirst that only God can fill. I'm done going to the wrong well. I'm turning to Jesus for what I actually need." Let her see that you understand the real problem.

You're drinking from the wrong well.

Jesus is offering you living water.

Stop going back to what leaves you empty.

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—Steve
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