Great Discussion on Marian Worship

Got this from a forum.
"..... so I am starting this thread in hopes that anyone who thinks we Catholics worship Mary will come here and state their reasons for believing so and we can correct them. Thank you." by Lance

From Karin:
Lance..thank you for the invite to post on your thread. So let me be the first to say (since I am the gal you speak of) that I see Catholics as worshipping Mary. Perhaps you can be the one to set me straight and make me understand what i have been unable to for so many years.
Why worship or pray to Mary (and Saints) when I can pray directly to God? Does the Bible not say something to the extent of you should not worhsip idols? Or are these two seperate things?
Honor: Great respect and admiration
Worship: treat somebody or something as deity: to treat somebody or something as divine and show respect by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion

I worship and honor God.

Replies to Karin:
Reply 1:
The 4th commandment says we are to honor our parents. We do not worship our parents. There is a difference.
Maybe you haven't heard this before, but:
latria = worship due to God alone.
dulia = honor [due to saints].
hyperdulia = highest honor due a human [Mary].

Reply 2:
When Catholics worship God they are doing what was done throughout the history of God's relationship with human beings. We offer a sacrifice. We read in Genesis that Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice to God, which was worship. Abraham offered acceptable sacrifice, which was worship. The descendants of Abraham offered acceptable sacrifices and the whole book of Leviticus is dedicated to the sacrifice established by Moses after the Exodus. The temple sacrifices continued on with only the Babylonian exile interrupting them into the time of Christ. Mary and Joseph offered an acceptable sacrifice as we read in the Gospels and Jesus established the sacrifice of his body and blood on Holy Thursday. We offer this one sacrifice of Christ on our altars at every Mass, and this is worship.

Prayer is not necessarily worship. It is when we offer sacrifice with it, but it isn't when we merely ask for the intercession of the saints or for your intercession or anyone else's. We don't offer sacrifice to Mary or the saints. We only ask her aid and intercession, just as we would ask for aid and intercession from any other Christian or person of faith.

And we believe in the communion of saints because Jesus told us that those who have gone before us into heaven are not dead, but alive. Even the OT peoples' souls were alive not dead. We know this because Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration during which they discussed with him his upcoming death in Jerusalem. If their souls were dead or asleep they certainly wouldn't have known anything about it, but they did. We believe that the members of the Church are divided in to the Church Triumphant (those in heaven and purgatory, which is a part of heaven) and the Church Militant (the Church on earth fighting the good fight of good over evil by spreading the Gospel). I hope that helps you.

Note: The arguments presented go on. Karin finally accepts that Catholics honour Mary and NOT worship her..but she brings up other side topics.