The Obedience of Mary

The humility of our Divine Savior and His most blessed Mother was always accompanied by a perfect obedience.  Obedience had such a power over both of them that they would rather have died, and even by death on a cross, than fail to obey.  Our Lord died the Cross through obedience.  And Our Lady -- what remarkable acts of obedience did she not make at the very hour of the death of her Son, who was the Heart of her heart?  In no way whatever did she resist the will of the Heavenly Father, but rather remained firm and constant at the foot of the Cross, completely submissive to the divine pleasure.  We can use the words of St. Paul for obedience as we have for humility:  Our Lord became obedient to death, even to death on a Cross.  He never did anything throughout His entire life except through obedience, which He Himself made know to us when He said:  It is not My own will that I have come down from Heaven, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.  Therefore, always and in order to follow it, and not for a time, but always and even unto death.

As to Our Lady, examine and consider the whole course of her life.  You will find there nothing but obedience.  She so esteemed this virtue that, although she had made a vow of virginity, she nevertheless submitted herself to the command that was given her to marry.  Ever afterwards she persevered in obedience, as we see today, since she comes to the Temple to obey the law of purification, even though there was no necessity for her to observe it, nor her Son either, as we have already mentioned in the first point.  Her obedience was purely voluntary.  It was not less for being voluntary and unnecessary.  She so dearly loved this virtue, which her sacred Son had engrafted as a divine graft on the trunk of holy humility, that she recommended no other...  This virtue is the inseparable companion of humility.  One is never found without the other, for humility makes us submit to obedience.

In The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales on Our Lady