The Risen Jesus “invites his disciples not to live the present with anxiety, but to make an alliance with time, to know how to wait for the unfolding of a sacred history that has not stopped but is always progressing, to know how to wait for the ‘steps’ of God, who is Lord of time and space”. Pope Francis made these remarks at his general audience catechesis today, commenting on the reading from the Acts of the Apostles in which Jesus responds to his disciples: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. “The Risen One invites his disciples not to ‘manufacture’ mission by themselves, but to wait for the Father to make their hearts dynamic with His Spirit, to get involved in a missionary witness capable of radiating from Jerusalem to Samaria and of crossing the borders of Israel to reach the peripheries of the world”, Pope Francis remarked. Speaking about the disciples “waiting” in the Upper Room, “whose walls are still witnesses to the gift by which Jesus gave himself to his people in the Eucharist”, he said: “How do they await the strength, the dýnamis of God? By praying with perseverance, as if they were not many but one. By praying in unity and with perseverance. “It is through prayer that one overcomes loneliness, temptation, suspicion and opens his/her heart to communion”, the Pope said, adding that “the presence of women and of Mary, the mother of Jesus, intensifies this experience: they were the first to learn from the Master to witness to the fidelity of love and the strength of communion that overcomes all fear”. “Let us also ask the Lord for the patience to wait for His steps, not to “manufacture” His work and to remain docile by praying, invoking the Spirit and cultivating the art of ecclesial communion”, he concluded.