"In like manner you should also make icons of the saints and venerate them, not as gods --for this is forbidden-- but because of the attachment, inner affection and sense of surpassing honour that you feel for the saints when by means of their icons the intellect is raised up to them."
Thanks for the quote. I don't think my big beef is believing anyone is really putting Mary and the saints on the same level as God. I think my "concerns" are more over the need to raise up so many figures to levels that may not be warranted. There are plenty of people who have gone before me whom I admire, respect, and whose faith I want to emulate. I just see "surpassing honour", and the like, as a bit disconcerting because it would seem too easy to forget that all these people were lost sinners, just like me. They needed Christ just as much as I do. So, I don't think Mary was great because of Mary, I think she was great because God chose her and made her great.
That makes me think of a new question. If the saints are communicating with us from Heaven, then I would have to assume that all have been "transformed" and are now sinless, etc. Is your veneration for what they were in life OR what they are now in Heaven?
The veneration is of their feat of faith: their sacrifice in their life. We see Christ in them. So we venerate them, because we love Christ.