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No! We venerate and honor Mary in a special way, while recognizing that she is not God. By seeking her aid, we are going ‘To Jesus Through Mary’.

When Catholics pray to Mary they are not worshiping her, rather they are honoring her and asking for her intercession on their behalf — in fact, more than praying “to” her, we pray “with” Mary, asking her to pray with and for us.

St. Louis de Montfort uses an incredible analogy of a peasant requesting a favor from a king, to explain Mary’s role in our relationship with God:

It is as if a peasant, wishing to gain the friendship and benevolence of the king, went to the queen and presented her with a fruit which was his whole revenue, in order that she might present it to the king. The queen, having accepted the poor little offering from the peasant, would place the fruit on a large and beautiful dish of gold, and so, on the peasant’s behalf, would present it to the king. Then the fruit, however unworthy in itself to be a king’s present, would become worthy of his majesty because of the dish of gold on which it rested and the person who presented it.

We are that peasant — sinful and broken — wishing to gain the favor of the King. Mary, Queen of Heaven, willingly takes our messy, imperfect prayers and purifies, sanctifies, and beautifies them; placing them on a dish of gold before our King, Jesus.
Sica, Caitlin. “Do Catholics Worship Mary?” LifeTeen.com for Catholic Youth, Lifeteen, 5 Dec. 2016, lifeteen.com/blog/catholics-worship-mary/.

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