I am the vine, you are the branches
Whoever remains in me and I in him
Will bear much fruit
For cut off from me you can do nothing
(John 15:5)

Stay in touch! How many times have we promised to contact friends and have not done so? The consequences? Eventually, the relationship withers and dies. The token acts of friendship, the obligatory Christmas card, are rendered meaningless.

Jesus reminds his disciples of the need for contact to sustain their relationship with him. He goes further; without regular and sustained contact he tells them that their work, supposedly in God's name,  will be meaningless: "cut off from me, you can do nothing."

Relationships need quality time. The name we give to some of our quality time with God is "prayer". In prayer we connect ourselves to the "vine". We let God feed and nourish us.  We submit ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit who has been praying in us to the Father since the moment of our baptism. The same Spirit, with our cooperation, constantly unleashes within us different facets of the gifts given to us at baptism; enabling us to bear fruit; transforming us with his loving presence so that we might grow more and more like Christ and love as God loves.