A question that I have encountered from non-Catholics is about our praying to saints, including Mary. Many are really put off by that.
I try to explain that our prayers to saints are vastly different. We pray to God as a form of worship, for expiation of sins, and for supplication. Praying to a saint, however, is a request for that saint to pray for us. It is no different than asking another living person to pray to God for you, except that we presume that someone already sanctified in heaven has a little more power in his prayers, I suppose. We do not worship the Virgin Mary, but some non-Catholics see our reverence and respect of her as such. We believe that Mary has a special place in the heart of Our Lord and, as such, is the ideal supplicant on our behalf.
And, of course, we do not worship any of the saints. For example, one of my personal favorites among the saints is St. Anthony of Padua. I do not worship him; I ask him to help me when I have lost something, and I thank him when I have found the object. By the same token, I ask other people to pray for me, and I thank them for doing so.
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Exactly. Visit any of the "prayer request" threads and you will find plenty of Protestants participating. It's a wonderful thing.