Why pray to saints and the Mother of God instead of going straight to Christ?

This is a nonsense question if you've read the Bible. In the Old Testament, people went to the prophets and asked for their intercession, and the prophets were a conduit for the grace of God to flow into situations and change things. In the New Testament, in the Book of Acts, people physically went to the apostles and the apostles healed them. Nobody thought, I'll just pray to God and something will happen.

And since the saints are not dead, as St Paul says, all are alive in Christ, we have that same connection with the saints. When Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor, Moses and Elijah were there, and the apostles knew them. The saints are still accessible to us, and experience has shown throughout history that when people ask the intercessions of the saints or the Mother of God, tremendously miraculous things happen by their prayers.

Asking a saint's intercession is the same as saying to a friend, pray for me, I have a big test, or, my wife went into labor, pray for us. Protestants ask other people to pray for them all the time. The problem is people think the saints can't hear their prayers, so they'll ask their pastor instead. It's ridiculous.