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POPE-AUDIENCE May-2-2007 (440 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope says only true way to know God is to love him
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
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.
According to Origen's teaching, the pope said, "understanding the Scriptures requires, even more than study, intimacy with Christ and prayer."
"Origen is convinced that the privileged path to knowing God is love and that there cannot be an authentic knowledge of Christ without being in love with him," the pope said.
Pope Benedict told the crowd that Origen emphasized his idea by pointing to "the meaning sometimes given to the verb 'to know' in Hebrew, as this verb is used to express the act of human love. For example, in Genesis we read, 'Adam knew Eve, his wife, who conceived.' In this way, it is suggested that a union in love leads to the most authentic knowledge.
"Just as the man and woman are two in one flesh, so God and the believer become two in one spirit," the pope said.
In his remarks to Spanish and Portuguese speakers, the pope asked prayers for his May 9-13 visit to Brazil and for the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which he will open.
"We ask the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to bless this ecclesial encounter with abundant fruit so that all Christians truly feel themselves to be disciples of Christ, sent by him to evangelize their brothers and sisters with the divine word and the witness of their lives," he said.
- - -
Editor's Note: The English-language text from the papal audience is posted online at:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070502_en.html.
The Spanish-language text is posted online at:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070502_sp.html.
END
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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