I believe the scripture: Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matt 18:19-20)
That is why I would pray for others or ask them to pray for me IN ADDITION to praying for myself.
Of course; but you are leaving out of that equation all our brothers and sisters “who have gone ahead of us marked by the sign of faith”, and that includes most especially the Mother whom Christ has given to us. He so identifies with us, truly is born within us at baptism that now His Mother is ours. She is our Queen - the mother of our King, and so we give her all of the respect and honor that is due to a Queen by her subjects.
I realize your RCIA program was woefully lacking in in regard to the Communion of Saints and Mary’s role in our lives, but now that you have professed your faith as a Catholic it is incumbent on you to get to know the Faith better and that includes wanting to understand what Christ teaches through His Church about His mother - and ours. The Church is not promoting the “worship” of Mary (as we often hear as an accusation), but is, rather, clarifying her essential role in the Incarnation and the tremendous importance of the Incarnation - calling Christians to appreciate it fully and properly.
In promoting personal Marian devotion, the Church holds out an incredibly valuable good that it would like all of us to have. Granted, some Catholics may not be able or well-suited to appreciate or accept this good; and the Church makes allowances for that. But, that doesn’t mean that the lack of personal Marian devotion is “equally Catholic” to the possession of it; the latter is what the Church would have you have and the former is what the Church allows for those who might not be ready or able to do otherwise.
I find it offensive that you would think God would rather have Mary ask him than me. We are both his children. He tells me to come to HIM. He never says to send MARY while I cower in fear. He is MY Father in Heaven.
Yes, He is. And you also have a mother who He has given to you in and through His Son. What I’ve often seen among Protestants - and your discomfort regarding prayers to Mary may reflect this - is that many are uncomfortable with an understanding of anyone, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Divine Savior and hence Mother of God, being at an advantage - by God’s predilection - in the Trinitarian life. This discomfiture appears when there is a diminished understanding of what the grace flowing from Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit accomplishes in the faithful soul as he or she progresses (hopefully) in this Christ-life; they do not understand that we are being divinized (“do you not know you have become partakers of the divine nature?”), but, instead, see grace as something that covers rather than transforms our human nature. As Catholics (and Orthodox, too), though, we know that Mary’s participation in the life of the Trinity (a life to which we are all called) is of a higher “status” or “role” than ours or any of the Saints in heaven, canonized or not. The Catholic says, “Yes, this is what we have by grace and since these is what we have the Blessed and Ever-Virgin Mary - by grace - has it in spades!”
Intercession while living on earth depends on being IN Christ, in a state of grace which sanctifies the soul, thus allowing the person to ask God for something for someone else. But in Heaven the person has the Beatific Vision of God and is united to Him “face to face” and “knows as he is known” and in a greater position to ask for someone else (since he does not need anything for himself). Therefore, to ask in Christ on of the Blessed to intercede for us is simply communicated to that someone by Christ since there is no other way that person could know what is going on down here except by being shown by Christ.
. May her sweet presence accompany us all, always.