Is Paul praying to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:25?

Obviously not, in any relevant sense. But I recently saw somebody raise 1 Thessalonians 5:25 in a discussion about praying to saints and angels. For whatever reason, it's common for Roman Catholics and those who are sympathetic to Catholicism to claim that Catholics don't pray to saints. Rather, they just ask the saints to pray for them. And I saw somebody bring up 1 Thessalonians 5:25 as an example. The passage not only doesn't support the Catholic practice of praying to saints and angels, but even illustrates one of the problems with the practice.

Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians. Apparently, he didn't think he could ask them to pray for him by praying to them. We have no reason to think that living humans will hear our prayers. Similarly, what reason do we have to think that deceased humans or humans in the afterlife who didn't die (e.g., Elijah) will hear any or every prayer we offer to them? A Catholic could appeal to church teaching, but that argument would only be as good as the case for church authority, and it would no longer merely be an appeal to 1 Thessalonians 5:25 or anything comparable.

And notice that asking somebody to pray for you by means of prayer is a form of praying to that person. The content of the prayer, namely asking the person to pray for you, doesn't change the fact that you're praying to that individual.

Furthermore, Catholics don't just ask saints (and angels) to pray for them. They do more than that. Here are some Catholic sources illustrating that fact and/or specifically using the "pray to" language. You can find many other examples (e.g., the Rosary) by running a web search:

"With a still more ardent zeal for piety, religion and love, let them continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared; nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race." (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus)

"How grateful and magnificent a spectacle to see in the cities, and towns, and villages, on land and sea—wherever the Catholic faith has penetrated—many hundreds of thousands of pious people uniting their praises and prayers with one voice and heart at every moment of the day, saluting Mary, invoking Mary, hoping everything through Mary." (Pope Leo XIII, Octobri Mense)

"Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men." (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, 2679)

For a collection of resources on prayer, including explanations of why we shouldn't pray to the deceased and angels and the evidence that believers of the Biblical and early postbiblical eras were opposed to the practice, see here.