In the account of the Annunciation there is a detail that usually goes unnoticed: Mary asks a question. She neither accepts without understanding nor resists out of fear. She asks, listens to the answer and then says yes.
That order — listening, discerning, deciding — is more demanding than blind obedience and more fruitful than permanent doubt. It is the mature way of answering a call.
What comes next is just as concrete: “she went in haste to the hill country.” Between the yes and the action there is no waiting period. Availability is measured in miles, not in intentions.
That is why in our communities we speak of Mary not only as a figure of devotion, but as a working method.
Listening means, in practice, sitting down with people before proposing anything. In El Salvador, in Guatemala and in Costa Rica every project began with long, unscripted conversations.
Keeping it in the heart means not reacting to the first thing you hear. Urgent needs and deep needs do not always coincide, and telling them apart takes time.
Setting out means that in the end there is a budget, a calendar and someone responsible. Without that, discernment becomes an elegant way of doing nothing.
And there is a fourth moment, the one at Cana: noticing what is missing before anyone asks. That attentiveness is what distinguishes accompanying from assisting.
The devotion to Mary that interests us is not the one that stops at the image, but the one that imitates her way of acting: attentive, discreet and quick when it matters.
If you would like to pray with us, there is a place for you every 13 May and at the community pilgrimages.