In his homily at the Marian Day festivities in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke about how Mary is an example of saying “yes” to God, even when that means allowing ourselves to be surprised.

According to the Vatican Information Service, the Pope’s homily focused on three points: God surprises us, He asks our fidelity, and He is our strength – and it is Mary who helps us to say “yes” to God every day.

“First, God surprises us,” the Pope said. He used the example of the story of Naaman who turned to the prophet Elisha to be healed of leprosy. When told to simply trust in God and wash himself in the little stream of the Jordan, Naaman was perplexed.  “What kind of God is this who asks for something so simple? He [Naaman] wants to turn back, but then he goes ahead, he immerses himself in the Jordan and is immediately healed. … God surprises us. It is precisely in poverty, in weakness and in humility that he reveals himself and grants us his love, which saves us, heals us and gives us strength. He asks us only to obey his word and to trust in him.”

This was also the experience of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope pointed out.

“At the message of the angel, she does not hide her surprise. It is the astonishment of realising that God, to become man, had chosen her, a simple maid of Nazareth: not someone who lived in a palace amid power and riches, or who had done extraordinary things, but simply someone who was open to God and put her trust in him, even without understanding everything: … God always surprises us, he overturns our categories, he wreaks havoc with our plans. And he tells us: Trust me, do not be afraid, let yourself be surprised, leave yourself behind and follow me!”

Francis continued: “Today let us all ask ourselves: Do I fear what God might ask of me, or what he does ask of me? Do I let myself be surprised by God, as Mary was, or do I remain caught up in my own security, in my plans? Do I truly let God into my life? How do I respond to him?”

Second, we must remember Christ always and persevere in faith.

“God surprises us with his love, but he asks us to be faithful in following him. Think of all the times we were excited about something or other, some initiative, some task, but then, at the first sign of difficulty, we threw in the towel. Sadly, this also happens in the case of fundamental decisions, such as marriage. It is the difficulty of remaining steadfast, faithful to decisions we have made and to commitments we have taken on. Often it is easy enough to say ‘yes’, but then we fail to repeat this ‘yes’ each and every day.”

Again, Mary is our example, he said. “Mary said her ‘yes’ to God: a ‘yes’ which upset her simple life in Nazareth, and not only once. Any number of times she had to utter a heartfelt ‘yes’ at moments of both joy and sorrow, culminating in the ‘yes’ she spoke at the foot of the Cross. Here today there are many mothers present; think of the full extent of Mary’s faithfulness to God: seeing her only Son on the cross.”

Are we Christians “by fits and starts,” the pope asks, or are we full-time Christians?

“The culture of the ephemeral, the relative, also takes its toll on the way we live our faith. God asks us to be faithful to him, daily, in our everyday actions. He goes on to say that, even if we are sometimes unfaithful to him, he remains faithful. In his mercy, he never tires of stretching out his hand to lift us up, to encourage us to continue our journey, to come back and tell him of our weakness, so that he can grant us his strength.”

Third, God is our strength. Francis used the example of the one leper who returned to God to give thanks and acknowledge that God is our strength.

“Let us look to Mary. After the Annunciation, her first act is one of charity towards her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth. Her first words are: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’ – the Magnificat, a canticle of praise and thanksgiving to God not only for what he did for her, but for what he has done throughout the history of salvation. Everything is his gift; if we were able to understand that everything is a gift from God, how much happiness there would be in our hearts! He is our strength.”

He continued: “Saying ‘thank you’ is so easy, and yet so hard! How often do we say ‘thank you’ to one another in our families? It is one of the key words of co-existence. How often do we say ‘please’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘thank you’, to those who help us, those close to us, those at our side throughout life? Often we take everything for granted! This happens with God too. It is easy to go to the Lord to ask for help, but to give thanks to Him … ‘Ah, it didn’t occur to me…'”

The Pope called upon the faithful to invoke Mary’s intercession to “be open to God’s surprises, to be faithful to him each and every day, and to praise and thank him, for he is our strength.”

At the culmination of the ceremony, the Pope consecrated the world to the Virgin of Fatima. “Teach us your love, especially for the minor and the poor, the marginalized and the suffering, for sinners and for those who have gone astray.”

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