November is a month of praying for the dead. A humanist sees this as a pointless exercise. Even as a religious person, I feel it difficult.

What, precisely, are we trying to achieve for the dead person? A quicker passage through Purgatory, perhaps? Reading this month’s Oratory Magazine, we are told that it is one of the most important things we can do. I tried it out with initial reluctance.

Curiously, once I had prayed for three friends that had died, I felt a lot better – as if I had achieved something.