Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem were saying ‘Isn’t this the man they are seeking to kill?’ and ‘Look he speaks out publicly and they say nothing to him. Can it possibly be that the authorities have actually realised that this man is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from. But when the Christ comes, no-one will know where he comes from.’

Then Jesus cried out in the temple courts, teaching: ‘You know me, and where I come from. I have not come on my own authority but it is true about the one who sent me, whom you do not know. I know him, because I am from him; that one sent me.

So they sought to arrest him, and yet no-one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. In fact many of the crowd believed in him and they said ‘When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than this man has done, will he?’

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

The crowd replied ‘You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?’

Jesus replied : ‘ I did one thing, and you all are amazed because of it.

Moses gave you circumcision – not that it came from Moses, but the Patriarchs
– and you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.
If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a whole man healthy on the Sabbath?

Do not judge by first impressions, but judge with right judgement.’

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

For the next six months Jesus was walking about in Galilee. For he chose not to walk about in Judea, because the Jewish leaders were looking for a chance to kill him.

The Jewish Festival of Sukkot was near. So his brothers said to him ‘You should leave here, and go to Judea, so that your disciples will see the works you do. For nobody does anything in secret and yet seeks to be well known. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. (For not even his brothers believed in him.)

Jesus said to them ‘My time has not yet arrived.But your time is always ‘now’. The world cannot hate you, it hates me because I bear witness that its works are evil. You go up to the festival, I am not going up to this Festival because my time has not yet come.

After he said these things he stayed in Galilee.

When however his brothers went up to the festival, then he also went up; not openly but in secret.

So the Jewish leaders sought him in the festival and said ‘Where is that man?’ And there was murmuring about him among the crowds. Some said ‘He is a good man’, but others said ‘No he deceives the crowd.’ However nobody spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

Then many of his disciples hearing this said ‘This saying is hard to take. Who can understand this?’

Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling because of this, said to them:
‘Does this cause you to stumble?
So what if you see the Son of Man going up to where he was before?
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh achieves nothing.
The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
But among you are some who do not believe.

(For in fact Jesus knew from the beginning some were unbelievers and as well as who would betray him.)

And he went on to say ‘This is why I have said “Nobody can come to me unless the Father has granted it to them.”‘

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

Then the Jews there quarrelled with each other saying ‘How can this fellow give us his flesh to eat?’

So Jesus said to them :
‘Truly, truly I say to you if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood then you do not have life in yourselves.
The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has resurrection life, I will raise them on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood stays in me and I in them.
Just as the living Father sent me and I live through the Father so the one who eats me will live through me.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, not like the bread your ancestors ate and died.
The one who eats this bread will live into the resurrection age.

He said these things as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

So the Jewish [who were gathered there] began to grumble about him, that he said ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ And they said ‘Is this fellow not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose mother and father we know? How can now he say “I have come down from heaven?”‘

Jesus replied to them ‘Do not keep on grumbling among yourselves.

‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them on the last day. It has been written in the prophets “And everyone will be taught by God.” And everyone who hears and learns from the Father, comes to me. (Not that any one has seen the Father, except the one who is from God – that one has seen the Father.)

‘Truly truly I say to you, the one who believes has resurrection life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and yet died. This one is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die.

‘I am the living bread who came down from heaven. If someone eats this bread they will live for ever, and the bread which I will give for the world is my flesh.’

Lord God,,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

They said to him ‘Give us this bread, always.’

Jesus said to them
‘I am the bread of life.
The one who comes to me will never be hungry,
and the one who believes in my will never ever be thirsty.

But I say to you that you saw me and do not believe.

All that the Father gives to me will come to me,
and the one who comes to me I will certainly not turn away.

Because I did not come down from heaven
in order to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Indeed this is the will of the one who sent me
that I will lose nothing of all that he has given me
and I will raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father,
that all who see the Son and believe in him
will have eternal life
and I will raise that one on the last day.‘

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

They said to him: ‘Then what are you going to do as a sign so that we might see and believe? What work will you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, as it stands written : “Bread from heaven – he (Moses) gave them to eat”‘

Jesus said to them ‘Truly, truly I say to you all, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my father gives to you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him ‘Give us this bread, always.’

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba