Have you ever felt the desire to stop practicing your faith, to drift quietly away from the Lord like a dried leaf that falls into a running stream, only to be whisked away by the humdrum muddle that makes up our lives? Every Christian has, if we're honest. It may not even be a conscious decision but simply begins as a small act, maybe a white lie, a postponed prayer here or there that never happens, or one Sunday Mass missed; it begins as a trickle but suddenly metastasizes into a tsunami. To us, therefore, weak in the flesh,  Jesus reminds us powerfully in the Gospel reading this Sunday: "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." -John 15:5