Faith
is saying "yes."

There are countless ways
of saying "yes"
each with its own gradation
and intensity.
One may speak an impatient, reluctant "yes"
given perhaps
out of a sense of constraint.
One can utter a mild, minimal,
disinterested
"yes".
One can express
a merely adequate
"yes."
But one can also articulate
a full-throated, enthusiastic.
emphatic "yes."

This is the way Mary
framed her assent
to God:
with vigor,
with abandon,
lovingly.

"I am the handmaid
of the Lord,
let what you have said
be done to me." (Luke 1:38)
that is to say:
yes,
yes, with all my heart.