A branch has one job: stay on the vine.
That is really it.
It does not have to understand botany. It does not need a course on grape production. It does not wake up worried that the other branch has produced better grapes.
It stays attached.
Cut it off and, for a while, nothing dramatic happens. It still looks like a branch. You could put it in a vase and give it a prominent position.
But it is finished.
Saint Teresa of Avila understood that this is what happens when a Christian stops praying.
We may still look perfectly Catholic.
We know when to stand. We know when to kneel.
We know that the second collection is coming before the priest has announced it.
But if we do not spend time with Christ, something has gone wrong.
Teresa called prayer friendship with Christ.
Friendship means turning up.
And, of course, when we turn up to pray, the mind immediately attempts to leave.
“Lord Jesus, I come before You…”
Did I turn the oven off?
“Thank You for Your goodness…”
I must remember to buy toothpaste.
“Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening…”
I wonder what happened to that man I worked with in 1996.
The mind can travel enormous distances without leaving the chair.
Teresa’s answer is not complicated: bring it back.
The branch does not have to make the sap.
It simply remains where the sap can reach it.
We do not make ourselves holy by concentrating extremely hard.
Christ gives us what we need.
Saint Paul says today that in Him we have “redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Christ died. Christ paid the price. Christ forgives.
So when we have sinned seriously, He has not left us to sit there drying out. He gave His Church Confession. We confess the sin; the priest gives absolution; Christ restores us to His friendship.
And then there is the Eucharist.
Christ does not merely tell the branch to try harder.
He feeds us with Himself. Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
You could hardly invent anything more direct.
Teresa did not want people spending their lives discussing how wonderful the vine is while slowly becoming firewood.
She wanted them close to Christ.
So pray.
Come back when distracted.
Go to Confession when you need it.
Receive Christ worthily in the Eucharist.
Stay on the vine.
Because a branch separated from the vine can still look quite respectable.
Just not for very long.
