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