The allocutio is important because it teaches us the virtue of listening, a virtue exemplified by Mother Mary.

In an address in May 2013, Pope Francis said Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth demonstrated three important virtues: listening, decision, and action.

Listening is different from hearing.  

Hearing is “the act of perceiving sound by the ear” but listening “is something you consciously choose to do. Listening requires concentration so that your brain processes meaning from words and sentences. Listening leads to learning.”

During allocutio, we listen to someone else. We give time to another speaker. We open our hearts to a new perspective. We recognize someone’s preparation. We surrender our attention.

In reality, however, it’s difficult for us to listen.

Often we hear, but we don’t listen. This happens to us all the time—at class, during conferences, sometimes even during conversations. 

We nod while someone is talking to us, but our eyes are glued to our phones. We engage others in conversations, but all the time our minds wander, thinking of other things, thinking of other people, that we incessantly check our phones to see what others are saying, are posting, hearing the person in front of us, who is investing time to interact with us in person, but not really listening.

And then we wonder why our interactions have become superficial.

1. We are surrounded by so much noise. Literally, they come from our gadgets, from traffic, from other people, from nature. But figuratively, noise comes from all around us, those that take time away from self-reflection: work, entertainment, and even negative attitudes.

2. Sometimes we just refuse to listen. We think we have nothing to learn, or nothing to gain, from listening to others. We hear what someone has to say, but we privilege our own perspective, our own understanding, so we open our ears but we keep our hearts closed. 

3. We don’t listen to silence. It’s a noisy world we live in, and we equate silence with boredom. We equate silence with nothingness, but silence can be loud if we only listen to it. 

We have become more connected with others, but how deep and meaningful are those connections? We have increased our connections, but in doing so we are also becoming increasingly disconnected.

When Mother Mary visited Elizabeth, it wasn’t just because he heard the angel tell her that Elizabeth was going to have a child despite her old age. Pope Francis said Mother Mary “knew how to listen to God.”

Listening includes interpreting the events in our lives: Mother Mary listened and understood that Elizabeth’s pregnancy represented something more important: the realization that “with God, nothing is impossible.”

Listening is becoming rare, but it has also become more and more important, given the busy world we all live in.

1. Listening teaches us humility. It makes us stop, pay attention to someone else other than ourselves, not just to hear others but also to understand others. Listening, not merely hearing, requires us to open our hearts, suspend our own judgment, and focus on someone else’s perspective. True listening doesn’t stop with us just hearing the words, and dismissing them as wrong or irrelevant. Listening, true listening, affects our actions. 

2. Listening is the pathway to empathy. How can we empathize with others if we don’t truly understand them? How can we understand others if we don’t listen to them? How can we listen to them if we only care about ourselves, if we think we are always right, if we feel we have not done any wrong? Listening teaches us humility, which allows empathy.

3. Listening is being merciful. Sometimes, we just want someone to listen to us, not to get advice, not to face judgment, but sometimes we just need to be reminded that someone cares. Today’s generation is a generation afraid of invisibility. Young people are socialized to always seek attention and be heard. Listening has become rare, and therefore precious. Sometimes we just need to know that someone is listening. 

It’s not easy changing what we are used to: We are born with our eyes closed and our mouths open. But we should listen as how we want others to listen to us.