You wrote:
“Jesus said that you cannot buy your way into Heaven, that you cannot work your way into Heaven, that only your relationship with Christ - asking Him to be your Savior - will save you. Nothing else.”
I agree entirely. Yet I still pray for people and I hope they pray for me. Prayer works. God gives grace to those He wills. When people, sincere, good Christians, pray for a person, God often gives grace in return as it is needed. The saints are the greatest prayer warriors of God.
“Sorry, those are the rules that Jesus laid down. They trump anything from anyone - or thing - else.”
I am not contradicting Christ in anyway. Nor will you succeed in showing that I have.
Yet all those prayers mean nothing, if the person does not accept Christ themselves. Intercessory prayer cannot save a person.