Who says that prayer?
We are told to pray ONLY to God...
So you naturally never ask anyone to pray for you, and rebuke any requests that you pray for someone, right?
...not people who are dead.
They're not dead.
I always point to the Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John saw a transfigured Christ speaking to Moses and Elijah. Both Moses and Elijah had been "dead" for centuries. But there they were, clearly alive enough to chat.
People in Heaven can’t hear us, they are worshiping God, praising the Lamb, they’re not taking correspondence from people still alive and relaying those prayers to God.
I would no more pray to Mary than I would to Paul, James, Peter or Silas...we are all subjects of God, some are asleep in Him, some are still on Earth in physical body form, but those who are in Christ don’t hear us praying to them, and even if they did, I’m sure Paul would say, upon my praying to him, “Hey, Ed...okay, I wrote half the Bible, but don’t pray to me, pray to our Father!”
Mary, I’m sure, would say the same thing.
Again, Jesus replied “Our Father, who art in Heaven” when asked how we should pray, not “Our Paul, our Mary, our Peter,” etc., etc.
Don’t pray to people gone on, pray to the One who made us, saved us and guides our lives, God...
Ed