I do not understand why we are told to pray to Jesus. I will not try to claim that I am an authority on this subject, but these are my observations.
Praying to Jesus over God
The first commandment given to us is “Do not have any gods before me.” By praying to Jesus, is that not having a gob before the one true God?
To update things further, the teachings of Jesus himself state that you, “First, love God your Creator more than anything else…..”
When one prays to Jesus and praises him are you not neglecting your love for God our creator?
There is the argument that the Trinity is God as a whole and by worshiping Jesus is is one in the same as worshiping God our Creator. What I have to say is that I believe the holy trinity is Catholic Dogma. The Catholic Church to me has lost all of its integrity a thousand years ago and anything it created must be approached with extreme skepticism.
The Lord's Prayer
Giving the holy trinity some credit, (purely because some others will do so) I must say that Jesus himself taught us to pray to the father.
Jesus' followers asked him how to pray and the result was them being taught The Lord's Prayer (a.k.a Our Father) in this prayer where does it say for us to pray for Jesus? The “Son” is not even mentioned within the prayer.
Accepting Jesus
The root of this Jesus prayer and worship may lie in Jesus stating that you must accept him as your savior in order to be accepted into heaven. Maybe it is an issue of different translations, but accepting him as a savior and worshiping him seem like two separate things.
Personally I will not pray to Jesus, it may be an abstract difference in the big scheme of things; but, when I can talk to God why would I talk to Jesus? I will put God my creator above all other gods and that includes Jesus.
I cannot quote chpater and verse, I think it comes from the sermon in John at the Last Supper. "No one comes to the Father except through the Son". This is why we pray to Jesus as God the Son as intercessor to God the father.