For a sermon about Mary to bear fruit, I believe that we need to talk about her real life, such as we can discover in the Gospel and not just what we merely imagine her life was like. It is easy to imagine that her real life, in Nazareth and later, was very ordinary... "He lived under their authority..." (Lk 2:51). How simple that sounds! We often depict Mary as inaccessible, but wouldn't it be better to show her as imitable, practising hidden virtue, living from her faith, just like we do? We could give examples of her behavior taken from the Gospel, "They did not understand what he meant" (Lk 2:50), or, "The child's father and mother were wondering at the things that were being said about Him" (Lk 2:33). Their wondering could perhaps imply a certain amount of astonishment, don't you agree, my Mother?