Instead of showing the Virgin Mary as unapproachable, she should be shown to be imitable!

For a sermon on the Blessed Virgin to please me and do me good, I need to see her real life, not her supposed life; and I'm sure her real life must have been quite simple. 

Instead of showing the Virgin Mary as unapproachable, she should be shown to be imitable, emphasizing her virtues, saying that she lived by faith as we do, and giving proof of this in the Gospel where we read: "They did not understand what he was saying to them" (Lk 2: 50). And another, no less mysterious passage: "His parents were amazed at what was being said about him" (Lk 2: 33). This admiration implies a certain astonishment, don't you think?

It is well known that the Blessed Virgin is Queen of Heaven and earth, but she is more mother than queen, and we mustn't say that because of her prerogatives she eclipses the glory of all the saints, as the sun at its rising makes the stars disappear. My God, what a strange saying! A mother who makes the glory of her children disappear! I believe instead that she will greatly increase the splendor of the chosen ones.

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

Translated from Last Conversations (August 21, 1897), in Oeuvres complètes, Le Cerf / DDB, Paris, 1996