Branch

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8).

Saint Bridget of Sweden (Altarpiece in Salem Church)

I have been reading about the life of Saint Bridget.  When she was forty years old, Saint Bridget was widowed.  She was the mother of eight children and lived at a time when women were completely disempowered during the fourteenth century in Sweeden… Saint Bridget did not let her human weakness stop her.  She was the first woman to found a religious order, the Brigittines.  She is called the Patroness of Failures.  She was shown visions of the Habit that her religious would wear and yet never saw those in her lifetime.  She never saw the Pope return to Rome as she so greatly desired.  And she was not able to bring peace between France and England.  However, her order spread quickly through Europe and she is also called the Patroness of Europe today.  Six of her eight children were canonised as Saints (and perhaps that is her greatest achievement after all)?

And this was all possible because she understood the words of Christ when He said that He was the Vine and all of us must abide in Him…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser...  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing...If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8).

A stalk that is not attached to the vine is merely a stick – it is dead and useless.  But a stick that is attached to the vine is a branch.  And branches can bear fruit.  Saint Bridget was a branch.  And I wonder today, as I consider the marvellous example of a Saint who allowed herself to be far greater than any Earthly thing could have imagined, even in the face of what must have felt like terrible failure, whether I am praying for the Grace to be a Branch.  After all, I get along in my own life quite easily, almost as though I am a stick, I look okay to the outward eye, but everything is empty and relatively meaningless.  And so, I have to wonder what it is that God wants of me…

And perhaps, I need to pray for the intercession of Saint Bridget?  After all, such a Saint as that changed the world, she just did not have the opportunity to show the world that change during her lifetime.  And it seems such a blessing to be able to do such a thing as that, and it only seems possible to me knowing that there is Grace – wonderful glorious Grace – to turn me into a branch…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.