Monthly Prayer: May

Reflection by Father David Stewart SJ 

In Scotland, we are blessed with plentiful supplies of clean, fresh water. It can be easy for us to forget how precious water is for many of our sisters and brothers in other lands. 

Water matters in our Bible. It was as important as the possession of land for the ancestors and heritage-bearers of Jesus. In that arid land, water spoke of God’s benediction and prosperity. Water and land spoke to the people of God’s blessing. The prophet Ezekiel (47:7-12) pictures, for them and us, water flowing from the temple and creating fertile growing conditions for fruit trees and abundant life. Ezekiel’s stream starts small, increasing as it flows to the desert. The Israelites would see in this the blessings of God’s covenant gushing forth, increasing until they covered the world. John the Revelator retrieved the imagery of Ezekiel to present anew how God’s promises would be fulfilled in the new earth. 

As we read of the River Guardians project in Colombia, we can pray through this Biblical lens. We should not ignore how human depredation, some of it illegal, damages the water-supply. Notice how the imagery of running water, symbolising God’s desire to nourish life, speaks to our hearts. Remember how God promised a heavenly supply of drinking water to sustain God’s people on their way through the dry desert (Ex.17:1-7). Then finally, in our prayer, turn to the wounded Heart of Christ on the Cross. From that pierced Sacred Heart flowed blood and water, life-giving for his people even now.