1. Why devotion to Mary?

One way I like to approach Catholic devotion to Mary is to point out that if we were privileged to visit Jesus in Nazareth when he was about 20 years old, we would certainly have spoken to Mary and Joseph too.

Jesus would not have wanted us to feel that we could talk only to him! So now, we can and should talk to Jesus in heaven, and I would guess that he still would like for us to talk to his Mother too!

Talking to Mary, praying to Mary, does not diminish our devotion to Jesus. If anything, it should strengthen it, because Mary will always try to lead us to her Son.