There are parts of Christianity, which tend to diminish - if not completely deny - the role of the Mother of God in the salvation of the world. This is truly and deeply sad because they forget that through her exclamation, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be done according to your word" (Luke 1:38), all of humanity gained the most intimate of intercessors before Christ.
It goes without saying, of course, that we can and do pray directly for the intervention of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. But sometimes we feel like we need help; for the very reason of the guilt we feel knowing that God remains loving and merciful while we persist in our sin and brokenness. Thus it is deeply comforting (at both natural and supernatural levels) to know we can run into the loving arms of the woman who was the birth-giver of the Savior and implore her to intercede for miraculous changes in our own lives.
So, be not afraid. Turn your eyes toward the Heavenly Kingdom and make up your own heart-felt, personal vocal prayer. It could go something like this: "Mary, Mother of God, Most Holy Theotokos, come to me in my time of distress. Take me under the protection of your veil and intercede for me before your Son and our God."
She will answer you! There's proof of this in the billions of personal stories people have told over the last 2,000 years. Some have even been recorded for us to remember.
During the month of July, for example, we commemorate a time in the 9th century when the Greek Christians begged the Mother of God to protect them from the not-yet-converted-Russians, who had sailed into the Bosporus to invade Constantinople. Specifically, the Christians took from their church in Blakhernae (a city nearer to the coast than Constantinople) the robe of Mary, which had been given in the 5th century to a Christian emperor by a Jewish virgin living near Nazareth, whose family had been the caretaker of the robe since the 1st century when Mary had given it to a trusted friend. After dipping the robe in the water, convinced of the protection that God would give them through Mary's intercession, the Russians became curious about the deep faith they witnessed and chose to negotiate with local officials instead of invading and killing them.
The point of stories like these is NOT to say we need relics to prove that God is real. Rather, it is to say that faith and prayer matter! Go to Mary, the Theotokos, the Birth-Giver of God, ask for her protection and intercession. She will give it to you.
.