In reply to jake bauman.

Jake, it is still wrong to ask Mary to "intercede" for us, when we are supposed to pray directly to the Lord ourselves. As a former Catholic, raised and educated for 9 years of parochial school education, I questioned some of the doctrines I was being taught, and one thing very troubling was the idea of praying to various saints and Mary to intercede for me at times of trial. One example and a personal anecdote is this: I was once a 22 year old Marine sent to South Vietnam and assigned to a small outpost in a rural district. I had been in-country for only one week. I was part of a small unit of Marines and Army Advisors augmented by local militia types(Vietnamese popular forces). My first combat exposure of my year long tour occurred that first week, with a night attack on our compound by the Viet Cong. As I was returning fire at flashes of enemy small arms and shadows of moving guerrillas in the darkness in front of our fields of fire, I began to say a prayer. I thought to myself, as a Catholic, "Should I ask Mary for help? Should I pray to Saint Jude? Should I pray to Saint Christopher? No....better just go right to the Lord!" Do you see my point? I survived that night and many more engagements by the grace of God. Even if I would have lost my life in that faraway battle, I could not waste my time praying to dead saints for this there intercession on my behalf. I would rather just pray to Jesus. No other name will do.