Today, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, as I read the Gospel and worked into some lectio divina, I was struck, not by a particular word or phrase, but by how few words Mary speaks in the dialogue with the angel Gabriel.

Mary speaks three sentences to the angel’s eight.

Mary speaks 30 words to the angel’s 171.¹

I suppose there’s a lesson, here. Mary listened. She allowed the Lord the first word and the enduring word, and she spoke sparingly. She used few words. She did not babble like the pagans (Mt 6:7).

In this regard, I’m reminded of a passage from the Rule of St. Benedict (20:1-4):

Whenever we want to ask some favor of a powerful man, we do it humbly and respectfully, for fear of presumption. How much more important, then, to lay our petitions before the Lord God of all things with the utmost humility and sincere devotion. We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. Prayer should therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace.

In other words, generally, our prayer should involve fewer words on our part and a lot more listening.

1. In the NAB translation. ↩︎