I hate to sound like a stick in the mud but it's one thing to understand the things that are of God; it's quite another fashioning a God in a particular image. Man is prone to do the second. Even when trembling before the fiery Mount Sinai and being fed with God's sustaining food day after day, the Israelites still fashioned a golden calf with Aaron's (who should have know better) assistance and called it the god who led them out of Egypt.
Man and his beliefs of God's holy nature is corrupt even with Him standing before us. It is our duty to seek and understand the true nature of God. I see nothing in the Old Testament of God asking the people to pray to the dead or petitioning a future "Queen of Heaven". To me this all represents shaky theology that is dubious at best.
If you cannot approach God except through lambs, flowery pictures, and little children running around laughing, you may wish to reconsider your belief structure. God is a holy and fierce (yes) God who jealously protects, guides and direct His chosen. God may or may not in His wisdom deliver us from the fiery furnace, but that does not mean that we should cease to worship Him. We are, after all, simply passing through on the road to greater good. It is our duty and should be our love to pray to and serve our Lord Jesus-not Mary. May we pray that He grants to us the courage to remain steadfast and true.
"God is a holy and fierce (yes) God who jealously protects, guides and direct His chosen."
Yup, left a throne in heaven to be born in a manger. The jealous fierce God you speak of must have been off somewhere else on the day of the Nativity.
"The Holy Spirit comes when we are receptive. He does not compel. He approaches so meekly that we may not even notice. If we would know the Holy Spirit we need to examine ourselves in the light of the Gospel teaching, to detect any other presence which may prevent the Holy Spirit from entering into our souls. We must not wait for God to force Himself on us without our consent. God respects and does not constrain man. It is amazing how God humbles Himself before us. He loves us with a tender love, not haughtily, not with condescension. And when we open our hearts to Him we are overwhelmed by the conviction that He is indeed our Father. The soul then worships in love." Archimandrite Sophrony