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Share your faith – Join our Online Discussion! Build up others with your thoughts on our Sunday meditation. Three questions will be offered for reflection and discussion each week. Please pray through the questions and share your insights or what the Lord spoke to you in the comments area provided. Your words will inspire others in The Word Among Us community and encourage us all.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit. (John 15:5)
Have you ever seen a wild grapevine? Left to itself, the plant rambles through underbrush and clings to everything in its path. It wraps itself around rocks, brush, and trees. It produces small, usually bitter fruit. A well-tended vine—something found on the slopes of wine country in France, Italy, or California—is another story entirely. It is tall, sturdy, and productive. Thanks to careful pruning, it yields large clusters of healthy, sweet-tasting grapes.
Speaking to people who were well acquainted with wild and cultivated plants, Jesus conveyed an important spiritual truth. God our Father is the master cultivator. Wanting the best for his people, he enables each one to tap into the source of true life—into an intimate, abiding relationship with his Son. Maintain this connection, Jesus promises, and you will live an abundant, fruitful life.
Vines have two kinds of branches: those that bear fruit and those that don’t. The non-producing branches must be carefully pruned back so that the vine can devote all its resources to the branches that have the most potential. The same is true of the vines in the Father’s vineyard. Staying connected to Jesus and producing a healthy yield means allowing ourselves to be pruned. It means trusting in Jesus’ goodness and obeying his commands so that all that is not of him can be stripped away. That’s how we can produce an abundant harvest, both in our inner lives and in our ability to bring his gospel to the world around us.
Jesus said that there can be no real fruit apart from him. He also said that he wants us to bear much fruit. So let’s decide to set our hearts and minds on staying connected to Jesus, the vine, so that we can be as fruitful as possible. There’s no telling what we can achieve if we do!
“Heavenly Father, make my heart one with you and your Son, so that I may bear fruit that brings you glory and honor.”
Discussion Questions
1. What are some ways that can help you stay “connected” with Jesus, like a branch connected to the vine? How can you nurture that connection and safeguard it more carefully?
2. Share some examples of “good fruits” that your life has yielded as a result of your staying connected to Jesus. What kind of impact has that fruit had on other people?
3. In what areas of your life have you experienced Jesus pruning you so that you can bear more fruit? Have you seen yourself become more fruitful as a result of this pruning?
One of the ways by which i can stay connected to Jesus Christ is by obeying his commandments. The only way i think i can be able to nuture and safeguard my connection with Jesus Christ is through prayers.
The most effective way (besides actually receiving Communion, physical or spiritual) that I have of keeping connected to Jesus is to make Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament. At least once a week, I spend an hour or more before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and that has absolutely without a doubt changed my life, and it has continued to change my life ever more as each hour with Him passes. I would recommend this to everyone. And yes, keep the commandments most definitely, and when you fall short--which all of us do--rush to the sacrament of reconciliation. Be reconciled to God as quickly as you can, and go to reconciliation frequently! Don’t let even small sins fester. Get them out, be done with them, and be reconciled completely to Our Lord. You will be so grateful that you did! Joy will fill you, no matter what is going on in your life, and no matter the suffering or problems that creep up. The joy and peace that Christ gives, you will find no where else. The world cannot give this to you. Only Jesus.
Yesterday I was watching the History Channel on television and they were featuring the Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei and other popular views of the Church and her mysteries. For some reason, I started surfing through Catholic websites while I watched and ended up purchasing an on-line subscription for WAU. I am now intending (with God’s help and your prayers, my brothers and sisters) to turn off the television for an hour every night and read, pray and meditate using the WAU resources. I hope that this will make me feel more connected and be more connected with Jesus.
When my wife and I read this reflection, I thought about the good and bad branches. I couldn’t help but think of how we fall short and sin. One of the many gifts of our Catholic Church is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have an opportunity to take these bad branches (our sins) and confess them and we are forgiven. As we all know, it is such a time of healing, guidance, and encouragement. We don’t have to wait for Christmas and Easter to receive this sacrament. The “good fruits” that my wife and I experience are the joys of our sacramental marriage. We also are both very active locally in the Cursillo movement and we have opportunities to share our faith on weekends to fellow team members and the candidates who are making their weekend. We start our mornings out in prayer and we have both experienced Jesus’ pruning in our lives and our love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary has been such a blessing for us.