"In that gesture Jesus anticipates in the Upper Room the mystery of the Cross. God is a faithful ally: if men stop loving, He continues to love, even if love leads him to Calvary. God is always close to the door of our heart and waits for us to open it to him," he said.
"And sometimes he knocks on the heart, but he is not intrusive: he waits. God's patience with us is the patience of a father, of one who loves us so much. I'd say, it's the patience of a father and a mother together. Always close to our heart, and when he knocks, he does it with tenderness and with a lot of love."
He concluded: "Let's all try praying like this, entering into the mystery of the Covenant. To put ourselves in prayer in God's merciful arms, to feel enveloped by that mystery of happiness which is the Trinitarian life, to feel like guests who did not deserve so much honor. And to repeat to God, in the amazement of prayer: is it possible that you know only love?"
"He does not know hate. He is hated, but He does not know hate. He knows only love. This is the God we pray to. This is the incandescent core of all Christian prayer. The God of love, our Father who awaits and accompanies us."
In his greetings to different language groups after his catechesis, the pope noted that May 13 is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, as well as the anniversary of the attempted assassination of St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in 1981.
Addressing Polish Catholics, he said: "In our prayer we ask God, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for peace for the world, the end of the pandemic, the spirit of penance and our conversion."