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PENSACOLA | FORT WALTON | PANAMA CITY | TALLAHASSEE
Click above to view the Lenten penance times in your area.
Lent is the observance of prayer, fasting and abstinence, and almsgiving before Easter. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Catholics prepare their hearts for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. During Lent, many Catholics choose to go the extra mile and “give up” something like candy, TV, or late-night snacks. The only prescribed days of fasting and abstinence are Ash Wednesday, every Friday of Lent, and Good Friday.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
Days of Abstinence
No meat can be eaten on Ash Wednesday and all of the Fridays during Lent. This applies to all Catholics 14 and older.
Days of Fast
Only one full meal is permitted on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday for Catholics between 18 and 59. Two smaller meals are permitted, but the small meals should not equal a second full meal. Drinking coffee, tea and water between meals are allowed. Snacks between meals are not allowed.
Days of Lent
Looking for a wonderful new way to experience Lent in 2020?
Click here.For a comprehensive guide to the 2020 Lenten season, with suggested prayers, devotionals, calendar, and other interesting information,
check out the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. -
CONFESSIONAs Catholics, we are encouraged to make the Sacrament of Confession a more significant part of our spiritual life during Lent.
Check out our confession guide if you haven't been in a while.
Click below to view the Lenten penance times in your area.
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POPES AND SAINTS SPEAK
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Rm 8:19)
MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2019
Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter. Even in the “valley of darkness” of which the Psalmist speaks (Ps 23:4), while the tempter prompts us to despair or to place a vain hope in the work of our own hands, God is there to guard us and sustain us. Yes, even today the Lord hears the cry of the multitudes longing for joy, peace, and love. As in every age, they feel abandoned. Yet, even in the desolation of misery, loneliness, violence and hunger that indiscriminately afflict children, adults, and the elderly, God does not allow darkness to prevail. In fact, in the words of my beloved Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, there is a “divine limit imposed upon evil”, namely, mercy (Memory and Identity, pp. 19ff.).MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2006
Our primitive rule states that we must pray without ceasing. If we do this with all the care possible — for unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the rule — the fasts, the disciplines, and the silence the order commands will not be wanting. For you already know that if prayer is to be genuine, it must be helped by these other things; prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.
St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection
Now the soul who wishes to rise above imperfection should await My Providence in the House of Self-Knowledge,with the light of faith, as did the disciples, who remained in the house in perseverance and in watching, and in humble and continual prayer, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. She should remain fasting and watching, the eye of her intellect fastened on the doctrine of My Truth, and she will become humble because she will know herself in humble and continual prayer and holy and true desire.
Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena
The efforts of Christians to promote justice, their commitment in defence of the powerless, their humanitarian work in providing bread for the hungry and their care for the sick by responding to every emergency and need, draw their strength from that sole and inexhaustible treasury of love which is the complete gift of Jesus to the Father. Believers are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who, in perfect obedience to the will of the Father, emptied himself (cf. Phil 2:6 ff), and humbly gave himself to us in selfless and total love, even unto death on a cross. Calvary eloquently proclaims the message of the Blessed Trinity’s love for human beings of all times and places.
Saint Augustine points out that only God, as the Supreme Good, is capable of overcoming the various forms of poverty present in our world. Mercy and love for one’s neighbour must therefore be the fruit of a living relationship with God and have God as their constant point of reference, since it is in closeness to Christ that we find our joy (cf. De Civitate Dei, X, 6; CCL 39:1351ff).
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II FOR LENT 2003
Looking for Liturgical Guidelines for Lent? Follow this link.
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2020 Lenten Penance services
Due to health and safety concerns of the spread of COVID-19, the Lenten Penance Services scheduled for March 20 and beyond are canceled at this time.
Please continue checking back for updates.Pensacola
St. John the Evangelist School, Pensacola – Thursday, March 5, 9:15 a.m.
St. Mary Catholic Church, Pensacola - March 11, 7 p.m.
Little Flower Catholic School, Pensacola – Wednesday, March 18, 6 p.m.
Little Flower Catholic Church, Pensacola – Wednesday, March 18, 6 p.m.
Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, Pensacola – Wednesday, March 18, 6:30 p.m.
St. Anne Catholic Church, Bellview - Friday, March 20, 6 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Pensacola – Tuesday, March 24, 6:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Rose of Lima - Tuesday, March 24, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Ann Catholic Church, Gulf Breeze - Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Paul Catholic School, Pensacola - Tuesday, March 31,10 a.m. (CANCELED)
St. Paul Catholic Church, Pensacola - Tuesday, March 31, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Jude Thaddeus, Cantonment - Friday, April 3, 4:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Thomas More, Pensacola - Friday, April 3, 6 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Sylvester, Gulf Breeze - Saturday, April 4, 9 a.m.- 12 p.m. (CANCELED)
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Pensacola – Saturday, April 4, 1:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
OTHER TIMES
Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel, Pensacola -
Fridays of Lent beginning, Friday, March 6, 6 p.m.—6:45 p.m.
Saturdays of Lent beginning Saturday, March 7, 10 a.m.—11 a.m.
Fort Walton Area
Christ Our Redeemer, Niceville - Monday, March 9, 6:30 p.m.
Our Lady of Victory, Crestview – Monday, March 9, 7 p.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – Thursday, March 12, 6:30 p.m.
St. Mary, Fort Walton Beach – Thursday, March 19, 6 p.m.
St. Rita, Santa Rosa Beach – Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
Corpus Christi, Destin - Friday, March 27, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)Holy Name of Jesus, Niceville – Monday, March 30, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Peter, Mary Esther - Monday, March 30, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)Eglin Airforce Base – TBA
St. Mary School, Fort Walton Beach – TBA
St. Margaret of Scotland, Defuniak Springs – TBA
Panama City Area
St. Joseph, Port St. Joe - Wednesday, March 11, 6:30 p.m.
St. Theresa, Sunny Hills - Thursday, March 12, 6 p.m.
Holy Cross, Chattahoochee - Monday, March 23, 5:30 p.m. ET (CANCELED)
St. Francis of Assisi, Blountstown - Tuesday, March 24, 6:30 p.m. CT, bilingual (CANCELED)
St. John the Evangelist, Panama City - Tuesday, March 31, 6:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Joseph the Worker, Chipley - Tuesday, March 31, 5:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Anne, Marianna - Wednesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Bernadette, Panama City - Wednesday, April 1, 6 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Dominic, Panama City - TBA
St. Peter and Paul, Panama City - TBA
St. Patrick, Apalachicola - TBA
Our Lady of the Rosary, Panama City - TBA
Our Lady Queen of Peace, Fountain - TBA
Tallahassee Area
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton - March 2, 6 p.m.
St. Thomas the Apostle, Quincy - March 7, 5-9 p.m.
St. Thomas the Apostle, Quincy - March 8, 5- 9 p.m.
Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Tallahassee - Thursday, March 26, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
Blessed Sacrament, Tallahassee - Tuesday, March 31, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
Holy Cross, Chattahoochee - Monday, March 23, 5:30 p.m. ET (CANCELED)
Immaculate Conception - Friday, April 3 (CANCELED)
Good Shepherd Parish, Tallahassee - Monday, April 6, 7 p.m. (CANCELED)
St. Louis Parish, Tallahassee - TBA
REGULAR WEEKLY RECONCILIATION OPPORTUNITIES
St. Eugene Chapel, Tallahassee - Tuesday and Friday, 5-7 p.m. or by appt. (CANCELED)