Pope says only true way to know God is to love him

Published: 2007-05-02

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The only true way to know God is to love him and enter into a relationship with him through prayer and reading the Bible, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Just as between people, one really knows another deeply only if there is love, if one opens his heart," so it is with God, the pope said May 2 at his weekly general audience. St. Peter's Square was a sea of colorful umbrellas and raincoats as rain sometimes gently sprinkled or poured down on the estimated 20,000 visitors gathered for the audience. As the pope rode through the crowd in an open jeep, his personal secretary held a huge white umbrella over him. As the rain became heavier, the pope told the people that Italian experts had been worrying about a serious drought this year, "so (the) Lord is giving us a sign of his blessing." In his main audience talk, the pope continued the previous week's discussion about the teaching of Origen of Alexandria.

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