Pope Benedict XVI reflected on God's love in Deus Caritas Est, 17: "In the love-story recounted by the Bible, God comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection... Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew... In the Church's Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives. He has loved us first and he continues to do so; we too, then, can respond with love."