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.