Vatican City, Nov 21, 2018 / 11:31 am
Serving others first requires listening to God in prayer, so that one can give the same 'yes' to God's will that Mary gave, Pope Francis said in a message for World Youth Day 2019.
"To be at the service of others does not only mean to be ready for action. It means also to be in conversation with God with an attitude of listening, just like Mary," the pope said in a video message Nov. 20.
"[Mary] listened to what the angel said to her and then she responded," he said. "It is by relating to God in the silence of our hearts that we discover our identity and the vocation to which God is calling us."
Whether one's vocation is marriage, consecrated life, or the priesthood – "all these are ways of following Jesus," he stated. "The important thing is to discover what God wants from us and to be brave enough to say 'yes.'"