5th Week of Easter 2025 - Wednesday - Spiritual pruning

 

These final weeks of the Easter season, we continue to read from the Lord’s Last Supper Farewell Address.

At this point, the Lord has spoken already about the importance of keeping His Commandments coming of the Holy Spirit, and the rich tapestry of the discourse continues to unfold as he speaks today about his desire for his disciples to bear fruit, and that can only happen if we remain connected to Him—as a vine to its branches--by loving him, following his teachings, and receiving his divine life through the sacraments.

Yet, the Lord also speaks today of pruning. “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

Every gardener knows that the purpose of pruning is to encourage growth. The gardener prunes his plants by trimming away dead or overgrown branches to encourage growth. Pruning makes the plant healthier and more fruitful. 

So too with our spiritual lives. The Lord, as the Divine Gardener, permits trials, corrections, and even painful losses—not as punishments, but as moments of pruning meant to detach us from sin, pride, complacency, or anything that blocks His grace. At times, He cuts away our comforts, our illusions of control, or even relationships and routines that are not helping us grow in holiness.

The pruning may hurt. It may leave us feeling exposed or uncertain. But it is never pointless. It is the loving work of a Gardener who sees what we cannot—the fruit we are capable of bearing if we are purified, simplified, and reshaped by His hand.

The Church, too, undergoes seasons of pruning. When scandals, divisions, or worldly influences are stripped away, it can feel as though the vine is being cut back. Yet, through purification and renewal, the Church is drawn back to her mission, and her witness becomes more fruitful.

Let us not resist the pruning of the Lord but welcome it as an act of divine love. Let us cooperate with His grace, trusting that through whatever trials we endure, He is making us more like Christ and preparing us to bear abundant fruit—for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Trusting in the loving care of the Divine Gardener, who prunes and purifies us so that we may bear lasting fruit, we lift our prayers to the Father.

For the Church, that in every season of purification and trial, she may remain firmly rooted in Christ and emerge more faithful and fruitful in her mission.

For the grace to detach from sin, selfishness, and anything hinders the life of God’s grace, so that we may more fully embrace His will

For those undergoing suffering, loss, or uncertainty, that they may recognize in their trials the loving hand of the Lord preparing them for greater growth in holiness.

For our beloved dead, that having remained in Christ during this life, they may now share in the eternal joy of His Kingdom.

Heavenly Father, lovingly tend and shape your people. Hear our prayers and grant that we may always remain in your Son, the True Vine, and bear fruit that endures to eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.