May 5, 2021 Reflection – Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit. May 5, 2021 Dear Family of Mary! Jesus said to his disciples: “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 every one 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. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15:1-8) In this Gospel, the message is clear. We must remain in Jesus and Jesus in us. We must stay in Jesus, as much as possible, through prayer, through penance, through love. Our Lady gave us the way to remain in Jesus in this message: July 25, 1998 “Dear children! Today, little children, I invite you, through prayer, to be with Jesus, so that through a personal experience of prayer you may be able to discover the beauty of God’s creatures. You cannot speak or witness about prayer, if you do not pray. That is why, little children, in the silence of the heart, remain with Jesus, so that He may change and transform you with His love. This, little children, is a time of grace for you. Make good use of it for your personal conversion, because when you have God, you have everything. Thank you for having responded to my call.” “Little children, in the silence of the heart, remain with Jesus, so that He may change and transform you with His love.” There is no substitute for personal prayer, for prayer in silence where we converse with Jesus. There is no other way to remain grafted on the vine! Our Lady gave us a prayer to Jesus in which we ask for this gift, of remaining in Him. I share it with you now, because it is so very real, so very descriptive of our weaknesses and failures in this regard. We fail to remain with Jesus every day. But we can keep trying. We can turn back to prayer as many times as we slip from it. Jesus will always welcome us back: Petition to God (Given by Our Lady to Jelena Vasilj, 6/22/1985) Recite 3 Glory Be’s Oh God, our heart is in deep obscurity, in spite of our union to Your Heart. Our heart is struggling between You and satan; do not permit it to be in this manner! Every time that the heart is divided between good and evil, let it be enlightened by Your light and let it be unified. Never permit, for there to be able to exist in us two loves, that there can never co-exist in us two faiths, and that there can never co-exist in us; lying and sincerity, love and hatred, honesty and dishonesty, humility and pride. Help us on the contrary, so that our hearts may be elevated toward You just like that of a child. May our heart be ravished with peace and continue to always have the nostalgia of it. May Your Holy will and Your love find a permanent place in us, that at least sometimes we would really wish to be Your children. And when, Oh Lord, we will desire to be Your children, remember our past desires and help us to receive You again. We open our hearts to you so that Your holy love will remain in us. We open our souls to you, so that they may be touched by Your holy mercy which will help us to see clearly all our sins, and will make us realize, that which makes us impure is sin. God, we want to be Your children, humble and devout, to the point of becoming your cherished and sincere children, such as only the Father would be able to desire that we be. Help us, Jesus our brother, to obtain the goodness of the Father in our regard, and to be good to Him. Help us Jesus, to understand well what God gives us, although sometimes we fail to perform a good act, as though it were for us an evil. Amen May we remain in Jesus and He in us, more and more!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan (c)Mary TV 2021