This is the question we posed at our recent Faith and Light gathering.
The feast of the Annunciation—Mary's "yes"—guided and inspired us. To help everyone express their own way of saying yes to God's will, or their way of reaching out to others, we divided into mixed groups: parents, young people with disabilities, and friends.
We were moved to see that everyone, at their own level, took part and spoke from the heart.
A full account would be too long, but we thought it worth sharing some of the reflections that emerged.
"It is very hard to accept," one mother said, "especially when you feel rejected by others—even by family—and when you feel like a burden to your other children."
"We had to say yes to a cross we didn't choose, that was imposed on us, and sometimes it leaves us feeling guilty in front of our own children."
A father: "As long as we are here, we say yes. But after? That is our deepest worry."
Another mother: "I have to say yes every single day in my care for my son. Sometimes courage gives way to despair. If you talk to someone, you risk getting pity that hurts, or you feel that your words are an unwelcome burden. At Faith and Light we have found friends. Talking with you is wonderful—but it is so little. We wish we could talk more."
A priest who was present said that these problems belong not only to the parents who carry them, but to all of us—first as human beings, and all the more so as Christians.
The young people's contributions went beyond their own experience at Faith and Light. They agreed that when they accepted the invitation to come, they said yes thinking they would "give." But then they found an exchange of friendship with everyone.
Beyond that, they shared other examples of when it is easier or harder to say yes.
"It is easier to say yes when you love the person asking."
"When you are tired, when you don't feel like reaching out to others, when someone disrupts your plans or your projects—that is when it is hard."
"I say yes when I don't want to do something, but I do it anyway because it makes another person happy, and because it makes God happy."
"When I have to accept something I don't want—my mother's illness, for instance."
"When I feel alone and want to meet others and hope to get something from them, hoping to find a solution to my problems, I say yes. But sometimes I end up disappointed."
"People don't reach out to others because they think they have so many problems and no time for anyone else. They see their own troubles as the most important."
"Taking the first step is often hard because you face a barrier and you are afraid."
"We need the help of others. A person needs to be encouraged, invited—otherwise they are afraid of not being welcomed and they hold back."
"We should be the ones to take the first step toward young people who, for example, behave badly or have no one looking out for them."
At the end of this gathering, a father remarked how much he had learned listening to young people and adults speak with such simplicity.
The more we meet, the more we know one another, and the more we love one another.
— A Faith and Light group from Rome, 1975
Note: This magazine is born from a desire to stay in touch with those far away. ALL of us—young and old—are warmly invited to contribute with simplicity: through letters, drawings, and testimonies.