Deacon: Wisdom! Arise! Hear the Holy Gospel!

Priest:    Peace to you all. 

People:  And to your spirit.

Deacon:  A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John (7:37-52, 8:12)

People:  Glory to You Lord. Glory to You.

Priest:   Listen!

Deacon:

On the last greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out:
   'Let anyone who is thirty, come to me. 
   Let anyone who believes in me come and drink.
   As scripture says "From his heart shall flow streams of living water".'

He was speaking of the Spirit, His believers were to receive. There was no Spirit here yet, because Jesus had not been glorified.

Some of the listeners in the crowd said, 'He is truly the prophet'.  Others said, 'He is the Christ'. But others said, 'Can the Christ come from Galilee?  Doesn't scripture say the Christ must descend from David and come from David's village Bethlehem?'

So people could not agree about him.  Some wanted to arrest him, but no-one actually held him.

The temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees. They said to the guards, 'Why haven't you brought him?'  The guards replied, 'No-one has ever spoken like this man.'  The Pharisees answered, 'Have you also been led astray? Do any of the authorities believe in him? Do any of the Pharisees? This rabble knows nothing about the Law. They are damned.'

One of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, who had earlier come to Jesus, said to them, 'But truly our Law does not allow us to pass judgment on anyone without first giving him a hearing and discovering what he is doing.'

So they answered, 'Are you a Galileean too?  Look into the matter and see for yourself.  Prophets do not come from Galilee.'  

People: Glory to You Lord. Glory to You.