This is not asking Mary to Intercede (Sample prayers). These prayers are relying on MARY to do something for the pray-er:
"O Lady and Mother of America! Strengthen the faith of our brothers and sisters"
"Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all."
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root
in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects already
weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction,
from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning,
deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity
of the children of God, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments
of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil,
deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit,
deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual
human beings, laden with the sufferings
of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all
sin:
individual sin and the "sin of the world,"
sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the
world the infinite saving power of the redemption:
the power of the merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart
reveal for all the light of hope.
Amen.
Is this thread still going?
Again, you are reading that with non-Catholic eyes and a bias against Catholics. I read those prayers and know that help from Mary does not come by way of her "power" but by the help of her Son. I see those as intercessory prayers. I'm sorry that they are not written to your liking. I can see why they might trouble a person that does not have a relationship with Our Lady and is uncomfortable asking for her help (prayers). They do not specifically say, Mary, pray for us for all these things we mention. They directly ask for her help. How do you think she helps us? Through her prayers to Jesus. I'm not sure what to tell you. I'm not giving up my mother. I love her too much.
Now, please don't read that and assume that I do not pray to God. I talk to him all day long. There are just some motherly things in my life that I feel could benefit from additional petitions from Mary. It's comforting to me. She's not taking me away from Jesus. Everything about her is pointing to her Son.