[OBW]

CMW. Good thinking. I think that I have come to see the verse in John about coming to the Father through Jesus as being because of Jesus, not with Jesus as the proxy, or the man in the confessional. I do not diminish that we can very well confess to Jesus. And your general thoughts about it are probably commonly-held.

I think that this came up only within the past few weeks here. What is it to come "through Jesus"? Is it to let him do it for us? Or is it that he is the road, and the way through the veil, to reach the Father for ourselves.

I don't think the answer suddenly invalidates our prayers if they do not fit some alternative "formula."

But at the same time, there is something to praying in the manner that is taught.