At a wedding in the village of Cana, in Galilee, the wine ran out. Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to her Son: 'They have no wine.' Jesus answered: 'Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.' Mary turned to the servants: 'Do whatever he tells you.'
Six stone water-jars stood nearby, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill them with water. He told them to draw some out and bring it to the steward of the feast. The steward, who did not know where it came from, drew the bridegroom aside and said: 'Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.'
John's Gospel calls this 'the first of his signs,' performed at his mother's request, by which 'he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him' (John 2:11). It is read as the inauguration of Christ's public ministry and as a prefiguration of the Eucharist.