When making a confession, it is important to understand God’s mercy. In the gospels, Jesus hands on the ministry of reconciliation to his apostles. “It is Christ Himself who, in a very human way, is forgiving the other person, and Christ Himself who, through the ministry of the priest, is absolving the person,” Archbishop Aquila said.

When we make our confession, we are able to know in a very human way the mercy of the Father and of Jesus. We have the affirmation of the Church that our sins are forgiven.

Archbishop Aquila also highlighted the fact that confessions are confidential, so we can speak heart to heart with the priest.

For more answers to your questions go to www.askabishop.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at askabish.

(Article written by Andrew Butler)

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Life has different meanings for everyone. It all depends on how one views life. The faithful believe life is a gift from God and everyone is created in His image, Archbishop Aquila said.

The faithful are convinced every human heart is made for God. Aquila said one of his favorite sayings that he doesn’t get tired of repeating is by St. Augustine.

“The human heart is restless until it rests in God.”

God, most especially the person of Jesus Christ, gives to us the meaning of life.

“We are created for the Father, and through baptism and confirmation we become the sons and daughters of the Father,” Aquila said.

He continued saying that the call of every human being is eternal life and to live forever with the Father in heaven.

“Once we understand that meaning of life, then we love God above everything else and enter into an intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit,” Aquila said.

He said we also love our neighbor as ourselves and the way we treat people begins in the home.

“The ways we express ourselves and give ourselves charitably to our neighbor, and especially to those who are most in need, certainly it begins in our families. How we learn to love one another and care for each other. But then it extends out to all humanity too,” Aquila said.

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(Article written by Kate Anderson)

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Many people wonder how often we should pray. Even though we all know how to pray, we just don’t pray enough. When we see something beautiful, we think of Instagram and not necessarily prayer. When we read the bible, we get excited about learning more theology. ASK A BISHOP got the chance to sit down with Archbishop Aquila to talk about prayer.

There’s many ways one can grow in prayer. Aquila said beauty often puts us in touch with the Lord, especially when we give him gratitude for that beauty.

When we pray through sacred scripture in which we listen to or read a passage and how the Lord is speaking to our hearts, it’s important that we pray to the Holy Spirit before that time and ask to open our hearts and help us to be receptive to the word and what we read in the scripture. By praying before reading scripture, we become more receptive and open to what the Lord is saying to us.

In a time of struggle or desolation, we need to bring that to the Lord. We can learn to pray by looking at some of the dialogues of Jesus with others in the Gospel such as the Apostles, Peter, the samaritan woman. Prayer should always be leading us into a deeper faith, trust and confidence in God.

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(Article written by Kate Anderson)

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We all know what prayer is. Some of us even try to pray everyday. But do you find that it becomes a boring routine or do you feel like God isn’t even listening to you? A lot of people struggle with prayer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that prayer is the lifting up of our hearts to God. ASK A BISHOP got the chance to sit down with Archbishop Aquila to discuss prayer.

Aquila said that prayer is entering in that quiet solitude with the Lord. The Gospel tells us that Jesus would often go to a quiet place to pray to truly be in communion with the Father. His deepest desire was seeking the will of the Father and doing the will of the Father.

In learning to pray, Jesus taught us to go into the quiet of our rooms and also taught us the great prayer of the Our Father. As his disciples, when we pray, our prayer is to be directed to the Father. Prayer is entering into that conversation like we have with each other and opening our hearts with the Lord and sharing our desires with Him.

St. Therese of Lisieux said prayer is a gaze at God or a movement within our hearts to speak heart to heart with the Lord.

For more answers to your questions go to www.askabishop.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at askabish.

(Article written by Kate Anderson)

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