Today, "fruit" and "love" belong together: the true fruit is the love that has passed through the Cross, through God’s purifications. "Remaining" is an essential part of all this. John 15 mentions several times the word "remain". What the Church Fathers call "perseverantia" —patience steadfastness in communion with the Lord amid all the vicissitudes of life— is placed center stage here.

Initial enthusiasm is easy. Afterward, though, it is time to stand firm, even along the monotonous desert paths that we are called upon to traverse in this life. If the fruit we are to bear is love, its prerequisite is this "remaining", which is profoundly connected with the kind of faith that holds on to the Lord and does not let go.

—Prayer is an essential element of this "remaining: those who pray are promised they will be heard. Praying in the name of Jesus is not to make an ordinary petition, but to ask for the essential gift that, in His farewell discourses, Jesus characterizes as "joy".