When we pray for the dead, we:
- obey the Lord and His Church,
- love our neighbor,
- express our unity with the other members of God’s family,
- help purify people in purgatory,
- help those in purgatory to go to heaven,
- face death and thereby become more aware of reality,
- express and strengthen our faith in the power of prayer,
- receive the benefit of the prayers of those in purgatory (Catechism, 958),
- rejoice, for all those in purgatory have given their lives to Jesus and will go to heaven,
- purify ourselves so that we will go directly to heaven and skip purgatory, or lessen our time in purgatory,
- share in the pouring out of God’s mercy, and
- enter more deeply into the mystery of God’s love and His plan of salvation.
There are other reasons to pray for the dead, but these twelve reasons show that, in praying for the dead, we act “in a very excellent and noble way” (2 Mc 12:43), for it is “a holy and pious thought” to pray for the dead (2 Mc 12:45).