We ask Mary to pray for us. Very simple.
Why not ask Jesus directly?
We really need to get on the same page on this because until we do we look sillier than necessary. It is true that many prayers to Mary and the saints in Heaven are asking for them to pray for us. But we must acknowledge there's more to it than that.
Surely you're familiar with the Memorare and the Salve Regina at least, there's more there than just asking Mary to pray for us.
Coulda fooled me.
Which is not supported anywhere in Scripture....only in some of the writings of the early church fathers. And they were not in 100% agreement over this.
Leave the poor, dead woman ALONE!!
Let's try some easy math:
There are approximately 1.2 billion Catholics world wide;
If merely 1% of them 'ask' Mary for help just once each day;
that means that 12 million separate prayers are headed Mary's direction every day.
Given that there are 86,400 seconds per day... (24 hours times 60 minutes times 60 seconds)
...that means that Mary has to handle approximately 139 'requests' per second!
Purty good fer someone NOT 'devine'!