I don’t pray TO them. I ask them to pray / intercede for me.
Sounds like a waste of time according to scripture.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
As you can see Jesus instructions direct us to pray directly to the Father. Christ suffered and died to give us that benefit. There is no greater access that anyone has then those of us who believe in Him. To pray to anyone else hoping to somehow increase our access or importance is a denigration of respect for what Jesus did for us to have that right to direct access to the Father. It’s a denial of what Jesus told us our right is.