It seems like all who defend the tradition of praying to/with those who have passed on are getting their arguements from youtubes Catholic Answers and not forming their own Holy Spirit imparted and decerning conversation.
Im waiting for the heat...::taps and raps fingers:
Praying to the Father is about a profound relationship.
How are we building a relationship with the Father if we pray with/to the saints?
It's funny you should say all this. Because I got a personal testimony concerning it all.
1) For the most part (almost 100% of the time) I do pray primarily to the Trinity and the individual members of the Godhead just like I did when I was a young Protestant.
2) I however consider myself spiritually speaking "to be in an extended family". But even here when I have my problems, I tend to have my best friend, my shepherd, and other close friends pray for me. But it is in that capacity that the saints exist. They are like your great great uncles and aunts that you can ask for their prayers on those occasions when you feel you need it.
3) And talking about the Holy Spirit, I actually had an interesting time a few years ago.
My wife divorced me a few years ago and that happened after I moved away from my home state. Initially that was very painful, I had just come out of a depressing time of being unemployed and now I was socially isolated because all my friends and relatives were back in California, and the divorce would mean I would loose the few social contacts that I had in my new home.
Anyway on this one time of prayer and fasting I did receive a powerful revelation of being of the sensation of "Being in the Body of Christ" and "Being in the Communion of saints". In Orthodoxy we realize that while we may be praying alone here on Earth, our prayers and worship is part of the Greater Worship that takes place in heaven. And that is something that actually is referenced in the book of Revelation a few times.
Anyway it this sort of thing that I don't think many Protestants really get. If you look at the Bible our Faith and Salvation is referenced more in group terms than in individualistic terms.
But I almost forgot the best part.
The event took away most of the loneliness etc, that I was feeling! Anyway rather than being unbiblical, this sort of thing is far far from it. In general, I actually pity you that you can't actually relate to this and want to twist this sort of thing into necromancy.