I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. 

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I want to be more intimate with you in prayer and more detached from created things. 

Petition: Lord Jesus, my God and my all, give me the priceless gift of intimacy with you in prayer. I am full of distractions, temptations, doubts, fears, worries, empty thoughts... help me lay them aside now so as to give you my full attention. Grant me the grace of experiencing you in prayer and for this give me a pure heart, for only the pure of heart shall "see" God, even in this life. 

1.  Our Need for Prayer.  Our Lord is with his apostles at the Last Supper. His heart is full of love, and he tries to express this love fully. John tells us "...now he loved them to the extreme." He has already washed the apostles' feet, prepared them for his imminent betrayal, and encouraged them to "trust in God still and trust in me." Now he teaches them another truth: how to remain in his love through prayer - "I am the vine, you are the branches..." 

Jesus gives us a vivid analogy of our need for prayer. Just as the branch depends on the vine for life-giving nourishment, so we depend on Christ for grace, since cut off from him we can do nothing. Only by means of union with Christ through prayer can we fulfill the work God has given us to do. So how should we pray? 

Jesus shows us the need to pray through the example of his life. The Gospels tell us he prayed before calling his apostles, before entering the desert, before sunrise, late into the night ...he prayed in public and private, before his miracles and in thanksgiving afterward, in joy and sorrow. Christ's whole life was a prayer until the last moment of his life, on the cross, when he prayed "Father, it is finished." If Christ felt the need to pray, prayer must be something much more substantial and electrifying than we usually imagine or experience. 

2.  United to the Vine.  Prayer is the way we can become one with Christ. We can safely say that our ability to pray and give ourselves to God is related to how "detached" we are from created things. Often the "anxieties and riches and pleasures of life" (cf. Lk 8:14) choke our budding spiritual life. The degree of union with Christ in prayer is proportionate to our degree of detachment from creatures. 

"...and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you..." 

We only have one heart and we have to give it to God first. The more creatures we love in themselves and for themselves, the less we will be able to love God. So Jesus says: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Mt 10:37) And again, quoting scripture: "The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve." (Mt 4:10) You cannot serve both God and Mammon... 

Our love and service to others has to be in Christ and for Christ. Someone has compared our love for Christ to the flow of water coming from a spring. The more leaks and sidetracks on the way, the weaker and poorer the flow at the mouth. If creatures get in the way, and siphon off my attention, the amount of love for Christ I show in my day will be that much weaker and less. Inordinate love for creatures does not only include immoderate love for cars, houses, money, vacations, jewelry, credit cards-"things". It also includes inordinate "immaterial" loves, like attachment to our position at work, esteem, power, prestige, recognition, etc.  

"Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever." (1 Jn 2:15-17) 

Prayer strengthens us and gives us the fortitude to resist the attractions of the world, to fulfill the will of God, and to please Christ in all things. Christ has given us the gift of prayer because he wishes to give us the gift of eternal life. It helps us to remember that our prayer is effective only if it helps us break with inordinate loves and grow in our love for Christ. 

Questionnaire

1. Am I giving my relationship with Christ the time and importance it deserves? 

2. How much time am I devoting to prayer, and how am I fully taking advantage of that time to unite my heart to Christ? 

3. Do I seek to reserve at least several minutes after receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion to intimate cordial prayer with him?