The Transfer of the Relics of our Holy Father Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari; Holy Prophet Isaiah; Holy Martyr Christopher.
Polyeleos Feast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Acts 8:40-9:19; Hebrews 13:17-21; John 6:48-54; Luke 6:17-23.
Read John 6:48-54
The theme that Jesus is presenting to His followers is that they must eat His flesh if they want to have eternal life. Their immediate response of how are they supposed to be expected to eat the actual flesh of a human being is asked of Jesus. What Jesus is doing is preparing them for the Eucharist, but He is explaining to them in a way that will allow them to understand that the Bread that He will give to them is His flesh. Jesus is already preparing His disciples to accept the fact that He will lay down His life for them and that they will be expected to continue proclaiming his death and resurrection through the eating of the Body and Blood of the Eucharist in the form of bread and wine. Even though the flesh that He will give them to eat will appear to be simply bread, it will not be so, this bread will indeed be the manna that came down from heaven, the Word of God, who becomes incarnate and whose flesh becomes truly present in the Eucharist. It is God Himself Who is the source of our existence and the one who sustains us. Our life is totally dependent upon God, to the point that without Him, we would immediately cease to exist and Jesus teaches us that He is life itself and the One Who feeds us with His very life.