Have you ever prayed for another person?
What's the difference between asking Mary to pray for you in time of need or any other friend or acquaintance?
I am fairly new in my walk with Christ but in my understanding the difference is that Mary is dead whereas friends and acquaintances are alive. I would not ask my deceased grandmother to pray for me either.
The assumption that those, besides the Holy Trinity, now residing in Heaven can even hear our prayers.
Mary's dead. Friends aren't.
That very clear difference seems to escape Roman Catholics who offer their prayers to people who are no longer living in this world and who may or may not be in heaven.
Scripture tells us that God ALONE hears and answers our prayers.
Jesus Christ is the ONLY mediator between God and men.
Read your Bible and shake off the dust of RC superstition and idolatry.
Whats the difference in asking Mary to pray for you and contacting great Aunt Mille and asking her to do something for you?
“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.” (Deuteronomy 18:9)
“Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:31)
“And the person who turns after mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.” (Leviticus 20:6)
“So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.” (1 Chronicles 10:13)
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.(Rev 21:8)
Praying to anyone but God through Christ is nothing more than the Colossian Heresy
Mary died. We are prohibited from trying to contact the dead, which prohibition was never lifted. There is no prohibition for contacting the living.