Christianity's leaves, flowers, root, and fruit

The rules and rituals of Christianity are not its core, but its leaves. Joy, the kind of joy that none of life's contrarieties can diminish, as the lives of countless saints from every walk of life so powerfully attest to, is its flower. But its root is God's love, and its fruit is God's love lived out in the humdrum routine of daily life by the followers of Christ.

John Bartunek, The Better Part