Pope Audience: God the Father loves us like no one else can

Continuing his catechesis on the “Our Father”, on Wednesday, the Pope told the pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI hall that the first step of Christian prayer is to enter into the mystery of God’s paternity. 

Pope Francis explained that in order to understand how God is “Father”, we think of our own parents. But, he noted, that no parent is perfect and we all have our defects.

God's love comes from a heavenly Father

The Pontiff went on to say that when we talk about God as “Father”, we need to go beyond the earthly image, because God’s love comes from a heavenly Father. Yet, we only experience this total divine love – in this life – in an imperfect way, for our human love is wounded. 

He said,  “we always live our relationships of love under the sign of our limitations and also of our own selfishness, so they are often polluted by the desire to possess or manipulate the other".

We are all beggars of Love

"Men and women are eternally Beggars of Love”, the Pope emphasized,… “they seek a place where they can finally be loved, but they can't find it.”

God’s love, on the other hand, said Pope Francis, is a perfect kind of love because He loves every single person in a way that no one on earth ever can. 

When we feel that hunger to love God, underlined the Pope, we are responding to the invitation to know God as “Father”. 

During his catechesis Pope Francis also said, “You can't pray like parrots. Either you enter into the mystery, in the awareness that God is your Father, or you do not pray.”