Kneel before statue of Mary? check
It is not necessary to kneel or be anywhere near a statue to pray. We are not praying to the statue. We do not believe the statue holds any power. It simply helps us focus and picture who we are talking to.
Pray to Mary? check
Yes, we pray to Mary. And other saints. We believe the saints in heaven can hear us. There is no injunction not to pray to them. We believe the wedding of Cana was a specific demonstration of how Mary can mediate with Jesus for us. You may interpret that scripture differently, but your interpretation has no more validity than mine does. Jesus may have rebuked her, but He did exactly what she said He would. He said it was not yet His time, but then He performed His first miracle. Because His mother asked Him to. Would he have done it if someone else had asked? We often ask Mary to pray for us, just as sometimes as children we asked Mom to ask Dad for something for us. Sometimes Dad has a harder time saying no to Mom than to us.
Rely upon Mary for her to answer prayers? check
We rely on Mary to intercede for us. Does she have any power to effect events on earth? Possibly, if God grants it to her. As would any of the saints if God wills it. The power is God's whether it goes through a saint or not. The rich man was able to ask Abraham to send Lazarus. Abraham said he wouldn't, not because he couldn't, but because Abraham knew his brothers wouldn't listen. But the decision was God's, through Abraham, because Abraham would not be able to do anything that was contrary to God's will.
Rely upon Mary to intercede for them? check
asked and answered.
Sometimes ask Mary to answer prayers when Christ will not? check
Mary would never do anything contrary to God's will. If she has power to answer prayers herself, that power would come through her from God, so she can only do His will. As at Cana, though, she may hold more sway with Him than anyone else does.
"I have no idea what's in your heart" -snip-"Actually it is the catholic who is bearing false witness by continuing to "pretend" they are not worshipping Mary"
You do realize that those two statements are mutually exclusive, don't you?
Love, O2
P.S
Why would you want Lurking, or anyone else, to pray for you? That would be asking for mediation between you and God and that would be a hateful insult to the only Mediator who is Jesus.
There are approximately 1.2 billion Catholics world wide;
If merely 1% of them 'ask' Mary for help just once each day;
that means that 12 million separate prayers are headed Mary's direction every day.
Given that there are 86,400 seconds per day... (24 hours times 60 minutes times 60 seconds)
...that means that Mary has to handle approximately 139 'requests' per second!
Purty good fer someone NOT 'divine'!
Perhaps a dictionary would be helpful to you...
Mediator
1: one that mediates; especially : one that mediates between parties at variance
a person who attempts to make people involved in a conflict come to an agreement; a go-between.
And of course,
μεσίτης
mesitēs
mes-ee'-tace
From G3319; a go between, that is, (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor): - mediator.
When someone prays for you the person is not a mediator...There is only one mediator...A mediator presents your case to the Judge and argues with an opponent in front of the judge on your behalf...That is the role of Jesus and no one else...
When you ask someone to pray for you, they are standing along side you, adding to your supplication or interceding on your behalf if you are not able to pray... NOT between you and God as a mediator does...
There is only one Mediator between us and God and his role in that capacity is to be our advocate to defend us and present our (His) case to God in the face of our accuser...
That would be in line with the examples we have in the NT where we see Paul asking others to pray for him and each other.
However, in none of those examples do we see Paul praying to Mary or to believers who've died.
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray He gave them the Lord's Prayer as an example.
John, who was Mary's caretaker after Jesus died never once wrote about praying to Mary or her being assumed.
It is so amazing that roman catholics have built up Mary into something we don't see accorded in the Word.