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I know this is a bone of contention between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians, and nothing I say is going to change the mind of any Protestant on how Catholics pray. However, I will repeat Catholic teaching on prayer:

All Catholic prayers are sent to God. We ask Mary, the angels and saints to pray FOR us. In the Hail Mary, for example, we say, "Hail Mary, Mother of God, PRAY FOR US SINNERS." We are asking for her intercession, because we know she is in Heaven and closer to God. When we pray to the saints in heaven, we are not asking THEM to grant us grace or mercy or forgiveness or anything, we are asking them to PRAY TO GOD FOR US, because we believe they are closer to God.

Catholics pray directly to God. Catholics ask others to pray for them, to God. There is no difference in asking a saint to pray for us than asking our best friend to pray for us -- except that the saint is in heaven.

God bless.

The difficulty in that is this:

What if every Christian in the world prayed today to St Francis? Would St Francis be able to comprehend those prayers from billions?

It assumes a level of omniscience on the part of a saint that is normally reserved for God. Therefore, you must come up with a teaching on how St Francis comes to know about all these prayers.

If he does it through his own abilities, then he is omniscient.

If he gets it passed from God, then you must wonder why God already knows the request but requires St Francis to remind Him.

I say this politely. My intent is to point out a weakness in the position.

You are right it is not likely that anyones mind will be changed . I just would like you or someone to articulate the difference . By the Webster defination of prayer Catholics do pray to Mary and the saints..I would like a Catholic to explain how they rationalize the difference in their own spiritual life

What do you do with the scripture that says Jesus was sent to be the only mediator between God and man?

I have heard it compared to you asking me for prayer..but in reality that is far different.,.you know I am here..you only have on faith that the others you pray to are even in heaven.(with the exception of Mary of course) Why ask a dead saint to pray for you when you could ask a living person to pray for you?