The name of Saint Photine, or Svetlana, is connected with light: phos (Greek) or svet (Slavic). She came to Jacob’s Well for ordinary, earthly water, but she encountered Christ who is the living Water and the Light of the world. Likewise, many people are motivated to pray because they seek solace in earthly troubles or solutions for earthly problems. Many people come to church in search of, or to maintain, their sense of community and personal well-being. Even the sacrament of confession is sometimes sought out as a source of psychological comfort for the troubled conscience. These are not the highest motivations, but there is nothing wrong with them: God loves us, in all our mortality and short-sightedness, and he has a paternal concern for our earthly troubles. But, just as Christ used Saint Svetlana’s search for earthly water to lead her to a greater, heavenly understanding, so does God use our earthly needs, troubles, and cares as an opportunity to enlighten us with a knowledge of things that are greater than earth and endure beyond time.
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