And there were disciples of John and the Pharisees fasting, and people came and said to him: ‘Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’

And Jesus said to them: ‘The wedding guests can’t fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as the groom is with them they cannot fast. There will come a day when the groom will be taken from them and then on that day they will fast.

‘No-one sews on a patch of new cloth onto an old garment, otherwise the patch will take something away from it, the new  from the old, and the tear will be  worse. 

 ‘And no one pours new wine into old wine-skins. Otherwise the wine will break the wine-skins and  the wine will be destroyed, with the wine-skins. But new wine is poured into new wine-skins.’

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