I've heard both sides--the supporting arguments and the dissenting of those writing in multiple threads and across forks of threads--regarding the asking of Mary to pray for us.

Here's why it's strange:

Where is even an approximating equal emphasis on Joseph? He was the male of the chosen family, the man to oversee the newborn Christ.
He too received a visitation from a messenger, announcing--independent of the visitation to Mary.

Why not an equal *or even greater emphasis* on asking Moses?
Someone so holy (meaning set aside for God's purposes) as to have been at the transfiguration; as to have led the Israelites across a parted sea (after having performed other wonders); as to have written five books of scripture; as to have overseen the construction of the ark of the covenant.

Why not *at least an equal emphasis* on David? Scriptually described as "a man after God's own heart"--so much so that it was promised the rule of his line would never end, such that Christ is called the branch from the root of Jesse (David's father). It is only for this promise from God to David that Mary is even considered as it were.

Why such an emphasis instead on "the mother"?

It's because we have
the Father,
the Son,
and so need the...

And that's it. That's the beg.

After a more extreme fashion, the Gnostics instead fill this in with Sophia (the feminine Wisdom). (And they are wrong to do so.)

No, friends, you don't have to run into protestantism's clearly broken arms and kneel into their awkward (i.e. broken) support. You are free to see that the arms that *are holding you* though are also fucked up.

The lack of admittance of this is, in fact, why the myriad fractals of protestantism (and all of its faults) began.